There is no rose (2013)
A setting of an Anonymous 14th century Advent text
SATB (with off-stage SATB quartet)
Commissioned by Con Anima.
For Alexander, born 28 September 2013
Duration:
4′
First performance:
14 December 2013
Con Anima, Roger Williams, St Mary’s Chapel, Blairs, Aberdeen, UK
London premiere:
7 December 2014
Voce Chamber Choir, Suzi Digby, Grovsener Chapel, Mayfair, London, UK
Hungarian premiere:
5 December 2014; King’s College Chapel Choir, David Smith, Church of St. Teresa of Avila, Budapest, Hungary
Score
This work is published by Music Sales, to buy a copy visit here.
Programme note
There is no rose is a setting of the much loved medieval poem as set by composers such as Britten, Joubert and Richard Rodney Bennett. My setting follows a different Britten piece as a model, his early masterpiece Hymn to the Virgin – here, like there, an off-stage semi-chorus intones the Latin phrases in a much more austere fashion to the material in the main choir. The two choirs never perform together and it is the austere material that ends the work, fading into the distance.
PAC
Recording
There is no rose (2013) by Phillip Cooke, performed by Con Anima Chamber Choir, conducted by Roger Williams at St Mary's Chapel, Blairs.
There is no rose (2013) by Phillip Cooke, performed by Aberdeen University Chamber Choir, conducted by John F Hudson at St Marylebone Parish Church, London.
