Name: The Consolation of Apollo by kilesmith
Duration: 36 min 11 s
Description: 37', choir, crotales and bass drum (played by singers). The words of the Apollo 8 astronauts as they rounded the moon and saw the earthrise, combined with text by Boethius describing Phoebus (Apollo) and our place in the universe. Includes a portion of the Genesis creation text, which the astronauts read to the world as we gazed at the earth on the television transmission.

What a beautiful composition. Brilliant agangement and use of advanced harmony concepts.

I sang The Stars Shine at the 2019 PMEA District 11 chorus festival, and it was a magical experience. The fact that Kile came to visit and listen to us meant a lot to the choir.

Leo Sowerby (1895-1968)
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Christmas and Magic
Music by Kile Smith (ASCAP)
Lyrics by Roy Powell (ASCAP)
Strings and brass arranged by Kile Smith
3:53
Andy Cooney, vocal
Demetrios Pappas, piano
Andy Lalasis, electric bass
Bob Shomo, drums
Joseph Kauffman, violins
Elena Kauffman, cellos
Martina Adams, French horns
Hayden Adams, trombones
Andy Cooney recorded at Tiki Mastering Studios, engineer Fred Guarino, Glen Cove, NY.
All instruments recorded, edited, mixed, mastered at Soundplex Studios, engineer Randy Weaver, Pennsauken, NJ.
Joseph Donofrio, producer

Christmas and Magic
kilesmith.com

Christmas and Magic

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Riccardo Chailly conducts the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in our featured performance of Symphony of Psalms (1930).

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37', choir, crotales and bass drum (played by singers). The words of the Apollo 8 astronauts as they rounded the moon and saw the earthrise, combined with text by Boethius describing Phoebus (Apollo) and our place in the universe. Includes a portion of the Genesis creation text, which the astronauts read to the world as we gazed at the earth on the television transmission.

The Consolation of Apollo

Orders open end of January 2018.

The recordings of Gaelic Psalm singing presented in the release are among the best ever captured. They document a living tradition, a form of religious singing from the Hebrides in Scotland, which is still practiced in Lewis. In Gaelic psalm singing, a precentor leads, and from here voices follow, moving together like the murmurations of birds. These recordings of Gaelic Psalm singing were originally made over two evenings in the Back Free Church on the Isle of Lewis in October 2003. The singing was spontaneous and totally unrehearsed. The recordings are now presented on vinyl for the first time by Arc Light Editions.

This is music that is transcendent and together, about the individual and the earth, movingly spiritual with or without belief. The sound comes in great waves, swells of sound that break and roll around the space. The texture relies on the individuals: this is group singing where the individual is preserved, elevated, but together.

A precentor leads off with the first lines of a psalm, and the congregation follows, some faster than others, and each one remains discernible. In his notes to the original release, Calum Martin writes that the form, called precenting (where one person puts out the line and the congregation responds) while not exclusive to Gaelic free church traditions, is in Lewis particularly influenced by the pibroch style of free ornamentation. It’s through this, he says, that the distinctive emotional swell of sound emerges. The sound relies on the congregation’s individual responses to the melody and the individual precentor’s leading. The musical term is free heterophony.

Arc Light Editions has worked directly with DR Macdonald at the Bethesda Hospice and Calum Martin on this release, and we thank them for their time. A portion of the profits from this release go directly to Bethesda Hospice, in accordance with the original release.

Official release date:
2 February 2018

The Consolation of Apollo

kilesmith

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