Hyperion Records

The Echo Carol was published in 1989 and uses a similar idea to his setting of the Evening Canticles for boys’ voices, in which a pencil is used to hold down the note G on the organ keyboard. In the Carol this note is also sustained—this time by the organist—to underpin the music’s texture.

The Echo Carol is a setting for boys’ voices of the plainsong hymn Creator of the starry height, introduced by the organ and answered in turn by two echo parts, both invisible to the listeners and set at different distances from the choir.

from notes by William McVicker © 1997