People of the Light - Digital Album
Performed by Festival Singers of Wellington
You are buying a zipped set of 22 CD quality MP3 tracks & PDF info booklet. The zip file is 184mb. Short
The Third Day cantata tells the story of Jesus' resurrection, from the discovery of the empty tomb onwards. Music in the rest of the CD follows roughly that of the church year: from Advent through Christmas through Passiontide and Easter and beyond, circling around to Advent again with the Magnificat.
You can listen to this music in worship, devotional times and for your personal enjoyment. Composer’s Comments
For nearly 20 years I have been director of music at a small Anglican parish in Khandallah, Wellington. I have played for them, written music for them, prayed with them, and occasionally preached to them.
There’s not a lot of cultural prestige attached to church music these days. I suppose the major cathedrals have a certain reputation to keep up, and the megachurches are serious big business. But why should I find this modest suburban congregation such a compelling environment in which to make music?
First of all, church is one of the few places left where ordinary people – people who don’t consider themselves musicians – are still expected to sing, as a matter of course. And just as cooking is far too important to be left to professional chefs, I believe singing is far too important to be left to singers. Secondly, church is a place where people, also as a matter of course, wrestle with and reflect upon deep things: life and death, good and evil, justice and mercy. To enter church is to join a conversation that has been going on about these things for a few thousand years now. Even the most obscure, muddy, silted-up inlet opens out on a vast sea of faith, practice, thought and artistic activity. If I wasn’t a believer, I think I might well have pretended…
In part, Guy Jansen established the Festival Singers to make churches more aware of this mighty ocean: to introduce them to music they would not otherwise have heard. My own involvement with the choir goes back to around 1990; first as a singer, then as accompanist (1999–2013), and now as conductor. Thanks are due in particular to an earlier conductor, Rosemary Russell, who gave me the opportunity to write for the choir; first, a Te Deum (available on our CD Spirited People), then, in 2009, The Third Day, which makes up much of this CD.
The Third Day has a wide stylistic range, from the recitative-like ‘plainsong’ of the prologue to the heavy metal guitars of the ‘strange and dreadful strife.’ This latter movement, for all its noisiness, is built on a very old-fashioned plan: it is effectively a chorale prelude on Christ lag in Todesbanden, a chorale Bach himself set several times. The Pietà (a genre of painting that depicts Mary cradling the dead Christ) has a gentle siciliano rhythm, used to express sadness since the time of Baroque opera. The instrumental melody of the Finale is a polska (not polka), a Scandinavian dance related to the polonaise – a happy coincidence, as the words of this movement are translated from the Danish.
The arrangement of the rest of the CD follows roughly that of the church year: from Advent through Christmas through Passiontide and Easter and beyond, circling around to Advent again with the Magnificat. Most of this music has been intended for particular occasions, and therefore written to deadlines: during a Christmas party before midnight mass; in the car on the way to a family gathering; sections of The Third Day rolled out just in time for rehearsals. But it is my hope that these tunes might transcend the circumstances in which they were written, and speak to any who will hear them.
Jonathan Berkahn
Composer and Musical Director October 2015 Track list
- Advent Song 04:04
- Introit 02:15
- This is why 04:05
- God is with us 03:35
- Go to dark Gethsemane 03:35
- Easter Snow – Instrumental: The Third Day 01:27
The Third Day Cantata
- Prologue: The Third Day 01:21
- Do you remember? The Third Day 04:18
- Judas: The Third Day 02:17
- Pieta: The Third Day 03:15
- He descended to the dead: The Third Day 03:34
- Early in the morning: The Third Day 02:56
- The Angels 00:37
- Did you hear the angels? The Third Day 01:52
- The locked room: The Third Day 07:23
- The Great Commission: The Third Day 01:30
- Finale: The Third Day 03:50
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- The Early Morning Set – Instrumental 07:16
- Such love 05:12
- Magnificat 07:03
- Nunc dimittis 03:07
- Blessing 03:50
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