Instrumentation
SATB soloists, SATB chorus, symphony orchestra (including guitar ensemble)
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Other Information
Oratorio for SATB soloists, SATB chorus and symphony orchestra including guitar ensemble.
Six movements: ´A Spirit is Departing´; ´Journey´ (Orchestral Tone Poem); ´Awaiting Dawn´ (Song for unaccompanied chorus); ´Summer Dawn´; ´Kitchi-Manitou´(Orchestral Tone Poem); ´Invocation´.
The texts are 19th century translations of traditional poetry from various tribes of North American Indians, predominantly of the New Mexico area. Together the poems form a story about the life-cycle of the Earth from the death to the re-birth of a soul. The Oratorio is a celebration of this natural cycle, and is dedicated to all those societies and individuals who are content to see themselves as part of Mother Earth, rather than seeking to own and, eventually, destroy her.
Commissioned by Birmingham Conservatoire to celebrate the coming of the year 2000. First performed on 18th February 2000 in the Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham, by soloists Debbie Bennet (soprano), Louise Brownbill (alto), Tom Solomon (tenor), Lawrence Broomfield (baritone), the Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra and the University of Central England Chorus conducted by Steven Lloyd.
´Andrew Downes... is a prolific composer as well as a popular Head of the Conservatoire´s School of Composition and Creative Studies. His musical style which often embraces traits from non European cultures, has an appealing immediacy and considerable attractiveness. "It´s very modern, but so beautiful", was a remark I heard during the interval. The performance was certainly a triumph...´
THE BIRMINGHAM POST
A video recording made of the first performance is available from Lynwood Music.
The second performance of this work took place in King´s College Chapel, Cambridge, on 27th October 2001. Soloists Paula Downes, Timothy Mead, Richard Butler and William Gaunt with the Millennium Scholars Chorus and Orchestra and the Birmingham Conservatoire Guitar Ensemble were conducted by Stephen Cleobury.
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