composer
Lowell Dykstra is op 14 september geboren in Exeter, Huron County (Ontario), Canada. Op zevenjarige leeftijd emigreert hij met zijn familie naar Nederland. Hij studeert gitaar bij Guido Topper aan ...
related works
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and instrument(s)
Scoring:
bar 2vl vla vc
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir
Scoring:
GK4
O Kerstnacht : Version for mixed choir and orchestra / Sem Dresden; words by Joost van den Vondel
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir
Scoring:
GK str
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir
Scoring:
GK
composition
A thin place : 3 prayers from the Carmina Gadelica, for mixed choir, 2002 / Lowell Dijkstra
Other authors:
Carmichael, Alexander
(librettist)
Contains:
Bannag nam buadh (The gift of power)
Beannachadh beothachaidh (Blessing of the kindling)
Sorchar nan reul (Lightener of the stars)
Description:
Program note (English): Alexander Carmichael was born on the island of Linsmore in Scotland in 1832. A civil servant by day, his passion was for the Gaelic culture. For more than 60 years, Carmichael made his Gaelic pilgrimages. The fruit of these travels was the 'Carmina Gadelica' , a collection of songs and blessings and prayers. They come out of a world that was full of music. There was a blessing for everything: upon arising in the morning, on kindling the fire, sowing the seed, setting out on a sea journey or a prayer when death came. These are blessings not handed down by a church or imposed from without. They come from within, from homes and work, a life close to land sea and sky. At last, they gave him the words of the prayers they would sing out loud if they were alone, but only croon softly to themselves if a stranger was in sight. Old people in the Isles sing this hymn (or some other) before prayer. Sometimes the hymn and the prayer are intoned in low tremulous unmeasured cadences like the
moving and moaning, the soughing and sighing, of the ever-murmuring sea on their own wild shores. They generally retire to a closet, to an out-house, to the lee of a knoll, or to the shelter of a dell, that they may not be seen or heard of men. Some, even older than eighty years, walk one to two miles to the seashore to join their voices with the voicing of the sea. There is a veil between this world and the next, this veil is lifted or grows thin. It is in those 'thin places' that we are perhaps more able to sense the presence of the holy, the presence of a loved one who has gone before us. - LOWELL DIJKSTRA