Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Harry Escott
O Viridissima Virga (2010)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Programme Note
The piece explores the Christmas story through the poems of women writers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries such as Christina Rosetti and Alice Meynell. These texts present an unusual and more complex reflection upon Advent and the Nativity; even the most joyful moments are often wrought with a sense of foreboding for the suffering to come. “Awful is this watching place, awful what I see from hence; Sleep, sleep!” a desperate line from the lullaby conjures up the maternal sensibility that infuses much of these texts.
Reflecting the hope, the joy and the dark premonitions to be found in the poems, O Viridissima Virga is a moving and atmospheric piece of music that is tentatively joyful and, at times, hauntingly tender.
The poems are framed by two settings of hymns to the Virgin Mary, written by the 12th century Benedictine Abbess, Hildegard of Bingen.
Reflecting the hope, the joy and the dark premonitions to be found in the poems, O Viridissima Virga is a moving and atmospheric piece of music that is tentatively joyful and, at times, hauntingly tender.
The poems are framed by two settings of hymns to the Virgin Mary, written by the 12th century Benedictine Abbess, Hildegard of Bingen.
Scores
Preview the score