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The CD booklet includes an article on the music with extensive quotes from Roth and from Seth, plus full texts and translations. The fact that Ex Cathedra has had such success with Roth’s music testifies to this. I want him to tax my brain, stretch my ear and challenge my emotions. I don’t want Roth to write my music, certainly not. Perhaps part of my response can be attributed to my being a composer. I wanted the music to move me in deeper ways than the superficial I wanted depth and intensity as well as gorgeous textures. Repeated listening left me feeling pleasantly entertained but unfulfilled. For me as a listener there was a little something missing that grit in the oyster. Judging by Ex Cathedra’s enthusiasm for this composer, I suspect his music is rather satisfying to sing. His music is well put together and finely crafted. Finally, on the first CD, we hear Sol Justitiae to a Latin text by a 19 th century principal of Hatfield Hall, University of Durham.Īlec Roth is a fluent writer who can create choral textures of great beauty and melodic interest. Here Roth adds a drum and a children’s choir to create some infectious and highly popular textures. Even so it does seem aurally a little divorced from the message, though Roth captures something of visionary intensity.Įarthrise is followed by a work, Hymn to Gaia, which sets different Greek texts of the hymn to Gaia.
He has created a work of great beauty with long ethereal interweaving lines. In doing this Roth pays homage to music of the past. The great interest of the piece is that it was written for Ex Cathedra’s fortieth anniversary and is in forty parts. The titles encapsulate the work’s message: Man’s Desire to Explore and Exploit, Contemplation of the Earth Seen from Space and A Plea for True Wisdom and Understanding. This might have worked better with a grittier text, rather than Roth’s well chosen verses from Job, Isaiah, Psalms and Proverbs. It has a slightly curious eco-political message, with links to the first Apollo landing on the moon and images of the earth from the moon. The first disc presents a group of Roth’s choral works which have no connection with Vikram Seth.Įarthrise is a three movement piece setting Latin biblical texts. The recital finishes rather aptly with a fine setting of a George Herbert poem, The Flower. Shared Ground and Ponticelli are on the second CD of this 2 CD set, slightly poor value at 91 minutes of music in total. Roth describes Ponticelli as a partita it is a suite for unaccompanied violin, here played by Philippe Honoré. Shared Ground is a beautifully wrought set of part-songs, six in all, very English in feel and harking back to English music of the 20 th century and earlier. For me the two works are far stronger linked than they are as separate entities. This is perhaps a mistake as most people will not be inclined to go to the bother of doing the programming and so will miss a striking experience.
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The CD booklet includes instructions as to how to programme your CD so that the two works can be played in an interlinked manner. The two works are presented separately on the CD, but Roth’s idea is that they will stand either as separate works or interlinked ones with the choral movements interspersed with the violin solos. In fact Herbert cheats and his first verse uses Grow, Row and Ow (instead of Owe). So that, for instance, Lost, the first poem of the group uses the same rhyming scheme as Herbert’s poem Paradise, where each verse uses a single word at the end of each line, but pared of a letter each time (Spray, Pray, Ray). Seth’s texts for Shared Ground are linked directly to specific George Herbert poems though Seth’s poems lack Herbert’s intense spirituality. He also wrote the work for solo violin Ponticelli inspired by the brides in the gardens of the house. In 2007, whilst staying in the house in Seth’s absence, Roth set the six poems that make up Shared Ground. Seth discovered Herbert’s poetry in his teens and in 2003 bought George Herbert’s house. Shared Ground and Ponticelli are the second of their collaborations, both premiered in 2007 by Ex Cathedra.įor this project a third presence hovers in the background, that of George Herbert the 17 th century poet. They have collaborated on a number of works, including Songs in time of War which is also available from Signum Records. Roth is perhaps best known for his collaborations with the writer Vikram Seth. No wonder Ex Cathedra like his music and have performed a considerable amount of it. Firmly tonal in base, Roth has a strong melodic gift and an ear for texture. It is all finely constructed, with a profound sense of line. After listening to these discs I was struck by the beautiful contours of Alec Roth’s music.
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