PANUFNIK
Celestial Bird for SSAATTBB
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ROXANNA PANUFNIK
SSAATTBB
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CELESTIAL BIRD
by Jessica Powers
O sweet and luminous Bird, Having once renounced Your call, lovely and shy I shall hunger for the finished word. Across the windy sky
Of all voiced longing and all music heard. I spread my net for Your bewildering wings, But wings are wiser than the swiftest hands. Where a bird sings
I hold my heart, in fear that it would break. I called you through the grief of whip-poor-wills, I watched you on the avenues that make A radiant city on the western hills.
Yet since I knew you not, I sought in vain. I called You beauty for its fleet white sound But now in my illumined heart I can release the hound
Of love upon whose bruising lease I strain. Oh, he will grasp You where you skim the sod, nor would Your breast, for love is soft as death, Swifter than beauty is, and strong as God.
First performance given by VOCES8 on 2 December 2013, at ‘The Candles Glow’, the Edition Peters Annual Christmas Concert 2013, St Bartholomew the Great, London, UK.
‘Celestial Bird’ by Jessica Powers from The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers published by ICS Publications, Washington, D.C. All copyrights, Carmelite Monastery, Pewaukee, WI. Used with permission.
ISUU Version
For perusal only
ISUU Version
For perusal only
ISUU Version
For perusal only
ISUU Version
For perusal only
ISUU Version
For perusal only
ISUU Version
For perusal only
ISUU Version
For perusal only
ISUU Version
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ISUU Version
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Roxanna Panufnik
Roxanna Panufnik (b. 1968) ARAM, GRSM (Hons), LRAM, studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music and, since then, has written a wide range of pieces including opera, ballet, music theatre, choral, orchestral and chamber compositions. Roxanna’s great love of world music is evident in works such as her Four World Seasons for violinist Tasmin Little, her multi-faith Warner Classics CD Love Abide, and Dance of Life: Tallinn Mass for the Tallinn Philharmonic, commissioned to celebrate Tallinn’s reign as European Capital of Culture. She is especially interested in building musical bridges between faiths and her frst project in this feld was the violin concerto Abraham, commissioned for Daniel Hope, incorporating Christian, Islamic and Jewish chant. This work was subsequently converted into an overture for the World Orchestra for Peace and premiered in Jerusalem in 2008 before being performed at the 2014 BBC Proms.
Roxanna Panufnik (*1968) studierte Komposition an der Royal Academy of Music und hat seitdem ein breites Repertoire an Werken für Oper, Ballett und Musiktheater sowie Chor-, Orchesterwerke und Kammermusik geschaffen. Panufniks große Affnität zur Weltmusik zeigt sich in Werken wie den Four World Seasons für den Violinisten Tasmin Little, in ihrer Warner Classics CD Love Abide sowie in Dance of Life: Tallinn Mass für die Philharmonie Tallinn, ein Auftragswerk anlässlich der Ernennung Tallinns zu einer der Kulturhauptstädte Europas 2011. Es ist ihr ein besonderes Anliegen, musikalische Brücken zwischen den Religionen zu schlagen. Ihr erstes Werk zu diesem Thema war das das Violinkonzert Abraham für Daniel Hope, in dem christliche, islamische und jüdische Choräle enthalten sind. Das Werk wurde später zur Ouvertüre für das World Orchestra for Peace umgestaltet und 2008 in Jerusalem uraufgeführt. 2014 stand es auf dem Programm der BBC Proms.
Photo © Benjamin Ealovega