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- 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
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Reviews
...a stunning new piece for choir and ensemble that meditates on the Nativity entirely from a female perspective.
He sets poetic reflections on the Christmas story by Christina Rossetti, Emily Hickey, Alice Meynell and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, enclosed within two Hymns to the Virgin by the 12th century Benedictine Abbess, Hildegard of Bingen. The framing allows him to explore the infinite possibilities of Hildegard's own plainchant, mellifluous and pure at the opening and then densely reworked in his own powerful polyphony at the close. Each of the intervening movements is an elegant vignette that could stand alone as an Advent anthem. Most notable among them is Alice Meynell's Unto us a Son is Given – an instant classic, beautifully crafted and gloriously sung by St Bride's superb professional choir. Mary's growing sense of foreboding for the torments awaiting her infant son is achingly captured by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and powerfully portrayed in Escott's pungent writing: "Awful is this watching place / Awful what I see from hence. Sleep, sleep, my Holy One!"
His choice of instrumentation for the ensemble is crucial to the work's overall effect; vibraphone and horn putting warm, concentrated points of light into the choral texture, and guitar and percussion adding an exciting edge and urgency. It's not often that a new work feels as though it's been in the repertoire for years, but this one does. It glowed under the intelligent direction of Matthew Morley.
He sets poetic reflections on the Christmas story by Christina Rossetti, Emily Hickey, Alice Meynell and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, enclosed within two Hymns to the Virgin by the 12th century Benedictine Abbess, Hildegard of Bingen. The framing allows him to explore the infinite possibilities of Hildegard's own plainchant, mellifluous and pure at the opening and then densely reworked in his own powerful polyphony at the close. Each of the intervening movements is an elegant vignette that could stand alone as an Advent anthem. Most notable among them is Alice Meynell's Unto us a Son is Given – an instant classic, beautifully crafted and gloriously sung by St Bride's superb professional choir. Mary's growing sense of foreboding for the torments awaiting her infant son is achingly captured by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and powerfully portrayed in Escott's pungent writing: "Awful is this watching place / Awful what I see from hence. Sleep, sleep, my Holy One!"
His choice of instrumentation for the ensemble is crucial to the work's overall effect; vibraphone and horn putting warm, concentrated points of light into the choral texture, and guitar and percussion adding an exciting edge and urgency. It's not often that a new work feels as though it's been in the repertoire for years, but this one does. It glowed under the intelligent direction of Matthew Morley.
9th December 2010