Arr. by Heather Harrison
Sung by The Singers, Newcastle upon Tyne at St Georges Church, Jesmond on 18.12.2021

Stille Nacht

"How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well, certainly, there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable. But again, truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror."

Performed by Eleni Petridou and Laurent Husbosch

picture: Epiphany II (Adoration of the Shephards), 1998
by Gottfried Helnwein

Spiegel

Written in Icelandic in 2013 for the North Icelandic Chamber Choir, the text comes from a folktale. The tale is about a troll who comes to a farm on Christmas Eve. He taps on the window and says compliments in order to trick a young woman into coming outside. However, her answers are clever and she keeps the troll in conversation until dawn, at which point he turns into stone.

Natttröllið

Written for Kammerkór Norðurlands (the North Icelandic Chamber Choir) in 2013, the text comes from an Icelandic folktale. A ghost, sitting in a darkened chapel, bemoans the state in which a young maid finds him, having once been a warrior hero of good looks and great strength. He invites her to kiss him "if she wishes", a throwaway comment she had made as she passed the chapel earlier in the day as grave diggers uncover his remains.

Horfinn Er Fagur Farfi

Music For Harp, Violin, Cello And Orchestra - Version 2 (2016)

Starts with a few drips, quickly gathers pace, then a downpour. Dies away as it started (reversing the pattern from the start). The sun comes out as the last of the raindrops drip off the foliage.

Rain

Navona Records showcases sacred and secular choral works by composer Jonathan Little on its latest release, WOEFULLY ARRAYED. Jonathan Little’s work has been described as “a music redolent of the past and the future.” His modern interpretations of Renaissance and Baroque techniques of composition—such as modal harmonies and isorhythm—form the basis of his musical voice. The sound is strikingly contemporary, yet also intertwined with choral traditions of the past. Several of these beautiful and moving settings of profound and poignant texts feature intricate “polychoral” techniques: multi-part, multi-divisi, solo, echo and spatial effects.
 
Many of Little’s choral works are designed to be performed cori spezzati—a technique with which different sections of the choir are arranged above and around the audience, adding another dimension to the listening experience. One of these pieces is his Kyrie for 21 individual voices, performed by the Thomas Tallis Society Choir. The other works featured on the album are all world premieres. Vox Futura of Boston performs a Gloria to accompany the Kyrie (both works are part of Little’s ongoing mass project, Missa Temporis Perditi). They also perform the extensive, rapturous title track Woefully Arrayed, from text attributed to John Skelton. The Stanbery Singers perform on the secular section of the album, which includes That Time of Year—a madrigal-like setting of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73—as well as Wasted and Worn, which is dedicated to the memory of the neglected neo-classical artist John William Godward. Vox Futura returns to round out the album with a reprise of the secular verses of Woefully Arrayed.

Woefully Arrayed

Op. 13 Reprise - abridged version - Jonathan Little, from WOEFULLY ARRAYED

A piece I wrote in 2010 before pursuing degrees in music composition. My house in Indiana became overrun by an annoying frustration of Ladybird Beetles, so naturally instead of calling an exterminator I wrote a fun waltz about the little buggers.

Music For Harp, Violin, Cello And Orchestra - Version 2 (2016)

stevelocks