Mary called it an angel

Commissioned by Halifax Camerata Singers; Jeff Joudrey, Artistic Director.

The text for this piece comes from Canadian poet Jeni Couzyn’s poetry collection, A time to be born. In the introduction to this beautiful collection, Couzyn writes, “A sense of the miraculous, an elation and outpouring of joy is the feeling that overwhelms most parents when they see their newborn infant for the first time.” She later writes, “When a baby is born, for a few precious moments, (which may become days, weeks, or even months) the veil lifts for most parents. We see what life is, we see its entry in the form of a child, and we’re lighted up with the numinous vision of it. Miracle is the only word hat seems to fit the experience – an intervention from outside the natural world which transcends its laws.”

Indeed, for me, this poem shimmers with mysticism and miracle. We are pulled into our directly human relationship with Mary and the Nativity with a beautiful sense of gentle, loving stillness and reverence.

I set the tone for the opening of this piece with the word “love” repeated in a series of warm, glowing harmonies mainly built on fourths to create a loving cocoon that sort of mists tenderly around a tonal centre. Above this, the solo voice(s) weave delicately euphoric phrases that also float, but do so both rhythmically and melodically. I suppose my idea here was to craft a soundscape that would feel cozy and warm without being too grounded or earthly, and I did this by setting up the harmonic language, rhythm, and voicing so that none of these elements are too strictly pinned down to things like tertiary chords, the gravity of the tonic note, and meter. I wanted the music to gently transcend these things so as uphold an elevated feeling of reverent euphoria. My phrase concept for the solo lines is quite independent from the rest of the singers, and if it wouldn’t create such a mess to do so, I would have liked to place the barlines from measures 9-16 and 23-28 in completely different places.

The Latin texts I’ve added aim to musically “lift the veil” and to invoke glorification of Mary and the miracle of birth. For me, this piece is as much about the Queen of Heaven as it is about how Nativity story connects us to the profound sacredness of new life, and the connection every mother has to the divine feminine.