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Track(s) taken from CDH55463

Echo Carol

First line:
Creator of the starry height
composer
Philip Wilby (b1949)
1989; for boys' voices
author of text
Anonymous - pre-Medieval
plainsong hymn Creator of the starry height (7th Century)
translator of text
John Mason Neale (1818-1866)

St Paul's Cathedral Choir, John Scott (conductor)
Recording details: June 1997
St Paul's Cathedral, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Arthur Johnson
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: September 1997
Total duration: 3 minutes 15 seconds

Cover artwork: The Nativity (detail). Stefan Lochner (c1410-1451)
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen , Alte Pinakotek, Munich / Artothek
 

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

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