Sanctum est verum lumen

Vocal scores on hire

Forces or Category: 40-part unaccompanied SATBarB

for 40-part choir (8 x SATBarB)
Sanctum est verum lumen was written as a companion piece to Spem in alium to celebrate the Tallis ...

Sanctum est verum lumen

Vocal scores on hire

Description

for 40-part choir (8 x SATBarB)
Sanctum est verum lumen was written as a companion piece to Spem in alium to celebrate the Tallis quincentenary. Jackson explores a variety of ways of combining the forty voices: there are massive contrapuntal tuttis, antiphonal exchanges between groups of singers, huge monolithic chords, and an 'über gimel' for the eight sopranos alone. The piece is essentially about light, and the text, though funereal in origin, is radiantly optimistic and invites a variety of ways of evoking that sense of light in music - from gentle luminosity to fiercely dazzling brightness.

Programme Notes:

Sanctum est verum lumen was commissioned by the Lichfield Festival for the Tallis quingentenary and was first performed by Ex Cathedra, directed by Jeffrey Skidmore, in Lichfield Cathedral on July 14th 2005.

For me, Thomas Tallis is the greatest of all English composers and his richly varied output - the early florid Votive Antiphons, the simple 4-part Anglican anthems, the plangently expressive imitative counterpoint of later pieces like the Lamentations - have been a source of great inspiration and an influence on my own work. So it was a particular pleasure to be asked for a new 40-part companion-piece to Spem in alium, even if, for all the excitement of the challenge it is also a slightly daunting prospect for there is much to live up to - any performance of Spem being as much a theatrical event as it is a purely musical experience.

I have divided the forty voices into the same eight 5-part choirs that Tallis used and my piece explores a variety of ways of combining those forty parts: there are massive contrapuntal tuttis for the full choir, antiphonal exchanges between different groups of singers, huge monolithic chords, an 'über-gimel' for the eight sopranos alone (gimel being a favourite Tudor device where the upper voices are divided to provide a section of special brilliance), individual voices emerging momentarily from the crowd, and at one point everyone briefly sings the same note (the D above middle C).

I wanted to write a piece that was essentially about light and the text, though funereal in origin, is of course radiantly optimistic and invites a variety of ways of evoking that sense of light in music - from gentle luminosity to fiercely dazzling brightness.'
Copyright Gabriel Jackson

Sanctum est verum lumen

Vocal scores on hire

Gabriel Jackson

Composer Information

Gabriel Jackson (b.1962)

One of Britain's foremost composers, after three years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, Gabriel Jackson went on to study composition with Richard Blackford and John Lambert at the Royal College of Music. Particularly acclaimed for his choral works, his liturgical pieces are in the repertoires of most of Britain's cathedral and collegiate choirs and he is a frequent collaborator with the leading professional groups of the world. From 2010-2013 he was Associate Composer to the BBC Singers. In 2014 his hour-long The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, commissioned for the 750th anniversary of Merton College, Oxford, was premiered in its chapel. May 2015 saw the premiere at the Latvian National Opera of Spring Rounds for soprano, choir and orchestra, commissioned by the Riga-based youth choir Kamer for their 25th anniversary. He was recently commissioned by The Marian Consort to write Stabat Mater to mark their 10th anniversary.

Gabriel Jackson's website

Sanctum est verum lumen

Vocal scores on hire

Gabriel Jackson

Reviews and Awards

"Sanctum est verum lumen itself comes across as an astonishing tour de force, the strands of musical texture cascading through this vast choir with glorious luminosity." - Marc Rochester, Gramophone, May 2009