A NOTE FROM THE COMPOSER
Try to imagine being an extra in a movie about some fantastical event one winter night over two thousand years ago outside a little town in Palestine. The unlikely characters are a cast of country folk, a couple travelers, and a mind-blowing special effects finale of extraterrestrial creatures sparkling like stars and making the most astonishing sound.
That's what animated my attempt to visualize the first four words of Angels We Have Heard On High, the source material for this composition. The familiar English carol, a paraphrase attributed to Bishop James Chadwick, is based on the anonymous words and music of a French song - Les Anges dans nos campagnes. I love Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn’s recording of the original version. It has a folksong quality to it, something closer to the rustic setting it captures.
However, I didn’t go there.
We Have Heard Angels is a choral fantasia, well-suited for a concert opener or finale. As a singer and choral conductor myself, I love to give every part moments to sparkle and whisper as the themes are passed around, spiraling up and cascading down, scattering apart and dancing back together
There are also several Easter eggs in the melodic material, counterpoint, and text painting, as well as a couple riddles in the interplay of word, sound, and celestial imagination. Let me know what you find…
Enjoy!
Commissioned by Kantorei of St. Paul, Minnesota, commemorating 25 years of artistic collaboration and friendship between conductor Adam Reinwald and composer Peter Robb