Thus Winter Falls (2006)
SATB chorus
Text: James Thomson
Duration: c. 11 mins.
Written for and premiered by Ann Howard Jones and the Boston University Chamber Chorus, Thus Winter Falls is a three-movement work for SATB chorus based on selections from the poem, Winter, by the Scots poet James Thomson. (Haydn’s oratorio, The Seasons, also sets sections of the same poem, in a multiply translated version assembled by the Viennese patron and diplomat, Baron Gottfried van Swieten.) This setting reflects the bleak character of the original text in passages describing the transition from late afternoon to early evening in winter, (When from the Pallid Sky, lines 118–129), the deleterious effect of the onset of winter on one’s psyche, (In Sable Cincture, lines 54–62), and wonder in the magical results of winter’s effect on the elements, (From Pole to Pole, lines 742–753).