Winter Landscapes | Commotio (chamber choir)

Join Commotio in the warm and welcoming surroundings of SJE Arts for a concert celebrating the best of Winter. Per Nørgård's Winter Hymn allows melodies, derived from the same material as his 3rd symphony, to unfurl across each other like fractals developing on an icy window. Nørgård used these melodies, written for the psalms of Ole Sarvig, throughout the 1970s in both choral and instrumental works. Howells combined two poems by Emeritus Fellow of New College, John Buxton, for his work 'Walking in the snow'. Perhaps less well known than some of his other choral works, 'Walking in the snow' displays sonorous choral textures and suspensions quintessential of the composer.

In addition to these secular celebrations of the season, Commotio will sing contemporary settings of seasonal liturgical texts, including selected Advent Antiphons by Cecilia McDowall, and John Muehleisen. Dobrinka Tabakova's contemporary setting of Alma Redemptoris mater plainsong over sonorous choral chords is simple yet scintillating. Warlock's whimsical 'A Cornish Christmas Carol' references a well-known carol, giving a very rare opportunity for the choir to sing it in the original Cornish!