Description
Massini, Ian de: Away in a manger
Ref
CN44
Categories
Choral Music
,
Choral Now
By
Ian de Massini
SATB unaccompanied
A carol at the heart of Christmas celebrations that has inspired over forty tunes since its first appearance in print in 1885,
Away in a Manger
has a surprisingly complex history of misattribution to Martin Luther and others, explained in fascinating detail in
The New Oxford Book of Carols
. Brushing aside the cobwebs of its past, Ian de Massini’s new musical setting transports the familiar words to an unfamiliar location: a crib scene evoked not in the midst of a homely parish church, but in a primitive Middle Eastern stable beneath the lucent darkness of a starry night sky. The piece invites two distinct manners of performance, both benefitting from the employment of staggered breathing: in its outer parts rapt and prayerful, befitting the pungent modal inflections and drone-like seamless harmonies; and in its middle section, Romantic and emotional, gently moving with warm expressivity. A fundamental presence, too, in the score is the timeless atmosphere of the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, a profoundly spiritual element in the music of this composer, who has sung regularly there since his days as a choral scholar.
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