Quire of Cheahs presents Poulenc's haunting and moving setting of the matins responsory for Holy Saturday "Tenebræ factæ sunt". The motet is dedicated to the great compositional pedagogue Nadia Boulanger who conducted the first performance of Poulenc's Organ Concerto in December 1938. Although the piece is ordered third in the set of four "motets for penitential time", it was the earliest to be written with Poulenc completing it in July 1938 at Noizay.

––
Tenebrae factae sunt dum crucifixissent Jesum Judaei,
et circa horam nonam exclamavit Jesus voce magna:
Deus meus, ut quid me dereliquisti?
Et inclinato capite emisit spiritum.
Exclamans Jesus voce magna ait:
Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum.

There was darkness while Jesus was being crucified by the Jews,
and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice,
"My God, why have you forsaken me?"
And bowing his head he gave out his spirit.
Exclaiming in a loud voice, Jesus said,
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."

Tenebræ factæ sunt (from "Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence") – Francis Poulenc

Quire of Cheahs presents Olivier Messiaen's meditative and beautiful "Oraison", taken from his "Fête des belles eaux". Written in 1937, the eight-movement work is scored for six ondes Martenots and was commissioned for the 1937 Paris Exhibition. It was written to accompany the movement of the fountains at the Exhibition.

The posthumously named "Oraison", an archaic and obsolete word in Middle English and Middle French meaning "prayer" or "mystical contemplation or communion", sets the main musical material from the fourth movement "L'eau". This was later adapted for cello and piano into the fifth movement "Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus" of his 1941 "Quatuor pour la fin du temps".

While "Oraison" was written to be performed by four ondes Martenots, several transcriptions have since been made for other instrumental combinations, taking their cue from Messiaen's own adaptation. Quire of Cheahs transcription, for solo voice and MIDI instruments, pays homage to the work's electronic roots while fusing it with the organic nature of the human voice.

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Oraison (from "Fête des belles eaux") – Olivier Messiaen

Magnificat, by Arvo Pärt

Alleluia, by Randall Thompson

Épithalame (from "Le Cantique Des Cantiques") –– Jean Yves Daniel-Lesur

Wild Grass (from "Tang Poems") –– Chen Yi

Vessels (from "Koyaanisqatsi") -- Philip Glass

Alleluya, a new work -- Peter Wishart

O magnum mysterium -- Morten Lauridsen

Es ist ein ros entsprungen -- Jan Sandström

A unique one-person vocal ensemble of Phillip Cheah and his three-and-a-half octave range which “defies the laws of nature” (Time Out New York) promoting choral music through the intersection of technology and vocal artistry.

Quire of Cheahs

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