In it the narrator depicts a late-night rendevous with a lover, which serves as a metaphor for leaving cares of the world behind and reconciling one’s soul, intimately, with God. This setting for choir and string quartet paraphrases a poem by Spanish mystic St. In contrast to peaceful, bright sunrises, each of us also experiences dark nights at various times in our lives. I will always think of this as one of his special pieces. Later on, it became a lullaby of sorts that we would play for our baby boy to help him relax and sleep. Being familiar with Arvo Pärt (see UCA’s YouTube video of Magnificat), we naturally had to listen to Spiegel im Spiegel (German for “mirror in the mirror”) when we saw it on one of her lists. She had us choose relaxing music from her playlists to use as background during the birth. When our son was born, we hired a woman who was certified as both a doula and a music therapist to help make the experience as comfortable and peaceful as possible.
Barlow Bradford: Still, Still, Stillīarlow Bradford’s arrangement of “Still, Still, Still” evokes the magical feeling of relaxing in a cozy, warm home while fluffy snowflakes fall silently outside. There are many fine recorded renditions of this carol, but I chose the Chanticleer performance for this list because it is the one I first fell in love with many years ago.
The richness and vibrancy of their performance confirmed to me that, yes, ensemble singing really IS cool! I bought their Christmas CD after the concert and quickly fell in love with the German Christmas carol “Es ist ein Ros Entsprungen” (known in English as “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”). When I was an undergraduate student and singing in a university choir, I attended a concert by the all-male ensemble Chanticleer.
Joel Longhurst has sung in Utah Chamber Artists for over 20 years, and his playlist is heavily influenced by repertoire he has performed with UCA.