“It was the winter wild”
SATB, flute, violin and harp.
Premiered by the Taylor Festival Choir in September 2017, this is the second in a five-movement choral cycle entitled So Hallow’d the Time. A professional recording of the full work was released on the Delos label in 2020.
Text
O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem,
quem de limo formasti.
—from ‘O Antiphons’, 7th century
[O King of the nations, and their desire, the cornerstone making both one: Come and save humankind,
which you fashioned from clay.]
It was the winter wild,
While the heaven-born child
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
But peaceful was the night,
Wherein the Prince of light
His reign of Peace upon the earth began:
The winds, with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kiss…
The stars, with deep amaze,
Stand fix’d in steadfast gaze,
Bending one way their precious influence;
And will not take their flight.
For all the morning light…
—from Ode on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, John Milton