Donald Nally, conductor. A cappella choral work for 24 voices. Text: extracts from the American writer Wendell Berry's 1968 essay “A Native Hill". The first five of twelve sections: I - The Sense of the Past; II - The Path; III - Sea Level; IV - The Pool; V - The Road.
Libretto: Cerise Lim Jacobs. David Salsbery Fry, bass, Master; Stacey Tappan, soprano, Madame White Snake; Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor, Xiao Qing (Green Snake); Matthew Worth, baritone, Young Monk; White Snake Projects Chorus & Lidiya Yankovskaya, associate conductor and chorus master; Boston Children's Chorus & Michele Adams, chorus master; White Snake Projects Orchestra & Carolyn Kuan, conductor. The last ten tracks of Act II: II-5 - "Love seeketh not itself to please"; II-6 - "Aaia, snake, snake"; II-7 - "He has cast a spell on this cage"; II-8 - "What a beautiful snake"; II-9 - "Snake, he is not
your Saviour"; II-10 - "We spit upon you, O Apophis"; II-11 - "Slice off my tongue"; II-12 - "Magic whiteness, magic albino"; II-13 - "My loving embrace"; II-14 - "Open the cage".
For chorus and violin, oud, qanun, cello and percussion. Donald Nally, conductor (The Crossing); Hanna Khoury, violin & music director (Al-Bustan). Four movements: I. - Ya ‘ahla ‘andalusen lilāhi darrukumu / Oh people of Andalusia, what beauty you have (text by Ibn Khafāja); II - Qum yā nadīm / Arise oh drinking companion (text: anonymous); III - Yā ma’shara al-nāsi alā fa’jabū / Oh people, stop and wonder (text: Umm Al-Kirām); IV - Qul lil’idā / Tell the enemy
(text: Muhamad bin abada al-qazaz).
For vocal octet. Originally written for the soundtrack of "Black Mirror", a British dystopian science fiction anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Arranged by Roomful of Teeth's Dashon Burton, and recorded in The Tank - an 80-year-old seven-story Corten steel water tank in Rangely, Colorado, known for its otherworldly acoustics.
