Composer: Brian W. HolmesDetailsFormat: Mixed Choir - 4 voicesVoicing: SATBAccompaniment: unaccompaniedNotation: standardPerformance Length: 2:30 Study Scores & Audio FilesStudy Score & Audio Order Printed ScoresOrder site / Alternate source of score: HornCabbage@aol.com Texts & TranslationsLanguage(s): EnglishText Source: Susan CooperText: Nights grew long and snow came falling, Deep and bitter cold it lay; Till the year was dark and dying, Frozen on the shortest day. Sudden fires leapt on the hillsides Flaring in the starless night; High above them voices singing, Singing, calling back the light. All night long we sang, beseeching Time to turn its wheel around Wakening the green abundance Buried in the sleeping ground. When the daybreak came next morning Heralding the turning year, Joy came flooding bright as sunlight, Freeing every heart from fear. So we sing that in this season Hope may drive despair away, New life springing out of darkness Born again this shortest day. Programming AidsPerformance Difficulty: moderateSeasonal Usage: AdventChristmasWinter SolsticeDescriptive Terms: SolsticeAllow Excerpts: Composition is a single movementComposer’s Notes: This is a song about the coming of the winter solstice. Susan Cooper wrote the poem for me to set to music. It is a rhymed version of her prose poem The Shortest Day, which is an important feature of performances of the Christmas Revels. This composition won the Amadeus Choir Seasonal Song-writing Competition in 2011. The approximate duration is 3:45. Additional InformationDate of Completion: August, 2011Date of First Performance: Sunday, December 11, 2011Premier Performance Data: Amadeus Choir (Lydia Adams, cond), Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, Toronto, CanadaAdditional Performances: Jan. 4, 2015. Orpheus Pagan Chamber Choir, Andrew Adams, Music director, Denver CO. Nov. 11, 2017. East Lyme HS Choir, Anthony Malese, conductor; Ithaca College Choral Composition Festival Concert
