The Spacious Firmament

Vocal score

Forces or Category: SATB, brass quintet, organ

New Horizons

for SATB, brass quintet and organ
Setting Joseph Addison's text, Jackson explores the use of vivid imagery the poem provides through this ...

The Spacious Firmament

Vocal score

Description

for SATB, brass quintet and organ
Setting Joseph Addison's much-loved text, Jackson explores the use of vivid imagery the poem provides through this dramatic medium. Rather than using the full forces of choir, brass and organ throughout, the piece proceeds through varied antiphonal groupings, rather in the manner of 17th-century Venetian music. In his celebrated style, Jackson accompanies imaginative choral writing with bright fanfares for the two trumpets, dancing chorales for the brass, coruscating figuration from the organ, and solo horn whoops over whispering arpeggios. Only at the end do all the forces unite for the first time in a clanging, celebratory conclusion.
Commissioned by the John Armitage Memorial Trust and first performed by the BBC Singers, Onyx Brass, and Stephen Disley (organ) directed by Nicholas Cleobury, at St Bride's church, Fleet Street, London on 10 April 2008.

Programme Notes:

Joseph Addison's poem The Spacious Firmament, much-loved in its familiar guise as a hymn, is an extraordinary vision, both ecstatic and scientific, reasoned and sublime. I am particularly drawn to texts which concern themselves with, literally, celestial things (a product of my interest in aviation and of space exploration, perhaps) and Addison's work is full of vivid images that cry out for musical setting.

I have divided the poem's three stanzas into six sections, each preceded by a brief instrumental sonata. Rather than using the full forces of choir, brass and organ throughout, the piece proceeds through varied antiphonal groupings, rather in the manner of 17th-century Venetian music. The work opens with a fortissimo organ chord followed by bright fanfares for the two trumpets - a call to attention perhaps - and there are dancing chorales for the brass . . . coruscating figuration from the organ . . . solo horn whoops over whispering arpeggios . . . The sopranos and altos alone hymn 'Th'unwearied Sun', supported by muted brass staccatos; the moon's 'Wondrous Tale' is told by an obbligato tuba, high in its range; the 'solemn Silence' of the third stanza is evoked by a hushed chorale and deep organ pedal while a harmon-muted trumpet provides an otherwordly descant, before all the forces unite for the first time in a clanging, celebratory conclusion.

The Spacious Firmament was commissioned by the John Armitage Memorial Trust and was first performed by the BBC Singers, Onyx Brass and Stephen Disley (organ), directed by Nicholas Cleobury, at St Bride's, Fleet Street, on 10 April 2008.

Copyright Gabriel Jackson

The Spacious Firmament

Vocal score

Gabriel Jackson

New Horizons

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