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SOMM Recordings

Canticle of the Sun - Choral Music by Stephen Dodgson

$20.99

Details

Composer: Stephen Dodgson
Artist: Sonoro, Katherine Bicknell, Michael Higgins
Format: CD
Label: SOMM Recordings
Released: May 17, 2024
Catalog #: SOMMCD 0686
UPC: 748871068629

About

SOMM Recordings announces Canticle of the Sun, an album dedicated to choral works by Stephen Dodgson. This recording adds to SOMM’s growing discography of music by this unjustly neglected and richly deserving British composer (the label last year launched an ongoing three-volume series embracing Dodgson’s rich and varied output of songs) on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth.

The performances are given by the chamber choir Sonoro, one of the UK’s foremost vocal ensembles. Described as “outstandingly refreshing” (BBC Music Magazine) and “abundant in vibrant colour” (The Guardian), they are tonally immaculate and technically astounding in Dodgson’s tuneful, yet challenging choral writing. They are joined in one work by Michael Higgins at the organ and in another by Katherine Bicknell on flute, while the remaining pieces feature the choir in stunning a cappella with soloists drawn from the choir throughout, and the entire programme is led by conductor and Co-Artistic Director of Sonoro Neil Ferris.

The selection of works, all of them first recordings, reveals in Dodgson a genuine composer for voices – one of abundant gifts, and special among them a sensitive approach to word-setting. The album’s titular piece, Canticle of the Sun (2008), one of Dodgson’s last vocal compositions, sets a text by the prolific English poet John Heath-Stubbs (1918–2006). The cantata Four Poems of Mary Coleridge (1987) sets the texts for the unusual and striking combination of mixed voices and solo flute, played by Katherine Bicknell, a flautist of “sumptuous tone” (The Straits Times, Singapore) and “striking musical ability” (MusicWeb). Incredibly effective throughout, the contrast between voices and flute is particularly evocative in the wonderfully dark “Nocturne I: (The Fire, the Lamp and I)”, with its interplay between almost recitative-like flute and solo bass interspersed with choir playing the characters of the fire and lamp.

’Tis Almost One (1984), is a short cantata for mixed voices and organ to words by Robert Herrick (1591–1674). The organ accompaniment is provided by pianist, organist, composer and arranger, and Co-Artistic Director of Sonoro Michael Higgins.

Following three undated but likely quite early shorter works for a cappella upper voices on anonymous texts (Winter, Lullaby and All Bells in Paradise), the programme concludes with Lines from Hal Summers, a setting for unaccompanied mixed choir. Dodgson chose three poems from Smoke After Flame (1944) by the English poet Henry (known as Hal) Summers (1911–2005), excerpting from them and setting to music carefully selected lines, as referenced by the title. It is difficult not to feel the growing sense of expected war-time victory in these texts – the music reflecting an unstated hopefulness for peace and rebirth.

This recording is supported by the Stephen Dodgson Charitable Trust.

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Tracklist 16 tracks

1 Canticle of the Sun 10:01

Track
1

Title
Canticle of the Sun
Duration
10:01
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
2 No. 1. Thistledown I 03:50

Track
2

Title
No. 1. Thistledown I
Duration
03:50
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Performer
Katherine Bicknell
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
3 No. 2. Nocturne I 05:01

Track
3

Title
No. 2. Nocturne I
Duration
05:01
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Performer
Katherine Bicknell
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
4 No. 3. Nocturne II 03:15

Track
4

Title
No. 3. Nocturne II
Duration
03:15
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Performer
Katherine Bicknell
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
5 No. 4. Thistledown II 03:29

Track
5

Title
No. 4. Thistledown II
Duration
03:29
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Performer
Katherine Bicknell
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
6 No. 1. Evening Hymn 03:36

Track
6

Title
No. 1. Evening Hymn
Duration
03:36
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Performer
Michael Higgins
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
7 No. 2. Cock-Crow 06:32

Track
7

Title
No. 2. Cock-Crow
Duration
06:32
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Performer
Michael Higgins
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
8 No. 3. Weigh Me the Fire 03:31

Track
8

Title
No. 3. Weigh Me the Fire
Duration
03:31
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Performer
Michael Higgins
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
9 No. 4. Thanksgiving 06:44

Track
9

Title
No. 4. Thanksgiving
Duration
06:44
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Performer
Michael Higgins
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
10 No. 5. The Bell-Man 04:46

Track
10

Title
No. 5. The Bell-Man
Duration
04:46
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Performer
Michael Higgins
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
11 Winter 02:59

Track
11

Title
Winter
Duration
02:59
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
12 Lullaby 02:48

Track
12

Title
Lullaby
Duration
02:48
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
13 All Bells in Paradise 04:14

Track
13

Title
All Bells in Paradise
Duration
04:14
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
14 No. 1. Darkness Is Broken 04:12

Track
14

Title
No. 1. Darkness Is Broken
Duration
04:12
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
15 No. 2. Riotous Voices 01:48

Track
15

Title
No. 2. Riotous Voices
Duration
01:48
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris
16 No. 3. Sing for Ever 03:19

Track
16

Title
No. 3. Sing for Ever
Duration
03:19
Composer
Stephen Dodgson
Ensemble
Sonoro
Conductor
Neil Ferris