Dusk Songs: Music for Compline
In 2005 The Ebor Singers worked on a piece by Kerry Andrew, at the time studying composition at the University of York with Professor Roger Marsh. The music was a setting of the Latin hymn O lux beata Trinitas and it was so well-received by the choir and audience that the choir felt compelled to perform more of Kerry’s music - and so this commission of Dusk Songs was born.
It was the aim of this commission to provide for the liturgy and other choirs a reflective work from the Western (and more specifically Anglican) Church liturgy that might be compared to the large-scale compositions written for the Eastern Church (such as the All-Night Vigil) where music and ritual are fused into a timeless expression of prayer.
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The service that comes closest to this in the Anglican tradition is Compline, where the prayers and psalms remain more or less unchanged throughout the year. Although music for the services of Evensong, Vespers, and Sung Eucharist have continued to be written since the Reformation, very little music has been written for Compline during this time, and certainly no complete setting of the service has been attempted.
Compline as it is performed in the Church of England is a composite liturgy, drawing from elements of Roman Catholic Vespers and Compline, which themselves have roots in the shared liturgical heritage of the Western and Eastern churches, and it was important that this was reflected in the new work. So alongside the familiar English translation of the Compline liturgy are other texts that demonstrate these cultural origins on the service and the wider context of Christian worship (two Catholic hymns, one Orthodox hymn and one Celtic prayer).
Dusk Songs was first performed on 9 September 2006 in the Chapter House, York Minster.
The other works on this recording are by Kerry’s more established (and more senior) contemporaries Ivan Moody and James Macmillan. While they all have highly individual voices, they also share an ability to combine old and new, unknown and familiar, in unique styles that continue to make music a vibrant part of worship and liturgy today.
| Listen to Dusk Songs |
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Listen to Dusk Songs. Track listing and disk information is also available. [Listen]
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| Buy Dusk Songs online |
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Buy Dusk Songs securely online from Boreas Music.
£9.99 + P&P (£1.50 UK only). |
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