Sussex Carol for Cello
For: violoncello
Year: 1991
Duration: 6’
Dedication: "To my friend, Robert La Rue."
First Performance: 25 May 1997 / Bard College Electronic Music Studio, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY / Robert La Rue, cello
Publisher: E.C.Schirmer
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Program Note:
This gloss on the Sussex Carol consists of a set of variations on two intertwined Advent carols: the first is a traditional carol tune from Monk's Gate, Sussex; the other is a Dublin carol from the mid 1880s. A nod is given to the 1919 version published by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Certainly, I had in mind Cecil Sharpe's words: "On Christmas Night all Christians sing / To hear what news those angels bring; / News of great joy; news of great mirth; / News of our Saviour King's own birth."
Effusive, eloquent, and pensive by turns, the variations serve as the centerpiece and soloist cadenza for the sixty-minute-long suite for choir and cello Silent Night, which was composed during 1997 for release on Arsis Audio, a record label owned by the music's publisher, E.C. Schirmer.
Composed in May 1997 in New York City and recorded at the Bard College Electronic Music Studio in Annandale-on-Hudson on 25 May 1997. Executive producer of the session was Robert Schuneman; recording engineer was Benjamin Milstein; the composer produced. Mr. La Rue recorded the variations in six takes.