Voices of Connection: 12/04 Howells: A Spotless Rose

For the month of December, Voices’ Artistic Administrator, Wesley Chinn will be curating a selection of Holiday music from recent Candlelight Christmas and Family Holiday Concerts.

I grew up in a thoroughly mixed household in Northern California--my father was raised as a Chinese Mormon born in Utah, and my mother’s family were Eastern European Jews. As a mostly secular Jew, I usually didn’t think much about Christmas carols until it was time for our annual carolling party (our hodgepodge of beliefs came together around music). General consensus in my Brooklyn home today is that it’s ok to listen to Christmas music any time after Thanksgiving, but during my time as a professional choral musician, I came to have great affection for a lot of music that is associated in particular with Advent, the ecclesiastical season spanning the four weeks before Christmas.

Music for Advent often focuses on themes of waiting or anticipation, and like much of the Advent repertoire, today’s selection centers on the Virgin Mary. The text is an 1869 paraphrase by Catherine Winkworth of the well-known “Es ist ein’ Ros’ entsprungen” (“Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming”). Howells’s gorgeous setting evokes the stillness of winter and the gentle beauty of the rose, with the mellifluous baritone solo (beautifully performed by ensemble member Jason Eck) making explicit that it’s Mary who is the Rose.

– Wesley Chinn, Artistic Administrator

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HERBERT HOWELLS A Spotless Rose

Voices of Ascension
Dennis Keene, Artistic Director
Jason Eck, Baritone

Recorded live at the CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS CONCERT
Wednesday, December 17, 2019, The Church of the Ascension, New York City
The singers in this performance are represented by the
American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO.

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