Richard Bullen - The Oxen (2016) for SATB - St Paul's Cathedral скачать в хорошем качестве

Richard Bullen - The Oxen (2016) for SATB - St Paul's Cathedral

Published by Stainer & Bell Ltd. Copies available here: https://stainer.co.uk/shop/cn26p/ Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. ‘Now they are all on their knees,’ An elder said as we sat in a flock By the embers in hearthside ease. We pictured the meek mild creatures where They dwelt in their strawy pen, Nor did it occur to one of us there To doubt they were kneeling then. So fair a fancy few would weave In these years! Yet, I feel, If someone said on Christmas Eve, ‘Come; see the Oxen kneel, In the lonely barton by yonder coomb Our childhood used to know,’ I should go with him in the gloom, Hoping it might be so. Thomas Hardy (1915) The Oxen was commissioned in 2016 by Choir & Organ Magazine for the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral, and it was written with the reverberant acoustics of St Paul’s in mind. I would describe the music as a dark lullaby. Lilting rhythms aim to evoke a mood of naivety and innocence; of children gathered in hushed excitement around the fireside on Christmas Eve. A strange sadness, however, permeates this idyllic scene. Hardy wrote the poem during World War I – it was published in The Times on 24 December 1915 – and one wonders how illusive and distant the peaceful image of the oxen kneeling before the infant Christ must have seemed in those years. The poem’s poignancy continues to resonate to this day. The Oxen is dedicated to the memory of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (1934–2016).