Tracks

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FULL YOUTUBE PLAYLIST
All Sixteen Tracks

Choral Sheet Music
All compositions are copyrighted to
Paul Halley/Back Alley Music (ASCAP) available as choral sheet music from Pelagos. Links to sheet music for each title are below.


CD One
Total Album Time 47:09

1. 6:40
We Will Rejoice For Evermore
Words: from Gates of Prayer 1975
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2050


2. 8:31
In The Wide Awe and Wisdom Of The Night 
Words: Charles G.D. Roberts
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2097


3. 5:48
Beati Omnes Qui Timent Dominum  
Words: Psalm 127
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2094


4. 4:01 
Nobile Claret Opus 
Words: Abbot Suger, Psalm 127: 1
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2091


5. 6:47
A Brighter Garden     
Words: Isaac Watts, Emily Dickinson
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2064


6. 4:46
Move Eastward, Happy Earth
Words: Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92)
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2093


7. 4:15  
The Pulley    
Words: George Herbert
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2016


8. 6:21
God's Grandeur   
Words: Gerard Manley Hopkins
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2080

CD Two
Total Album Time 38:19

9. 6:29   
Sanctus and Benedictus    
Words: Ordinary of the Mass
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2024


10. 4:15
You Gather Things To You   
Words: Pablo Neruda
Trans. W.S. Merwin
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2092


11. 5:48
I Cannot Dance, O Love     
Words: Jean Weibe Janzen,
Charles Wesley
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2049


12. 2:16
Oculi Omnium     
Words: Psalm 145: 16&17
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2014


13. 6:00
Magnificat: Tone II      
Words: Gospel of St. Luke
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL5028


14. 5:47
My Beloved Spake 
Words: Song Of Solomon
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2032


15. 3:03
We Wait For Thy Loving Kindness, O God   
Words: Selected Scripture
by Rev’d C. M. Armitage
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2067


16. 4:41
Psalm 150: Laudate Dominum   
Words: Psalm 150
Music: P. Halley
Sheet Music PEL2062

 

Items with catalogue numbers are linked to music available on this site. Click on link.

All compositions by Paul Halley
© Back Alley Music (ASCAP)

 

 

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In The Wide Awe And Wisdom
Choral Works by Paul Halley

KERAMION SINGERS directed by Paul Halley
Nick Halley, assistant conductor
Paul Halley, organist

Add to cart:

Catalogue No. PEL1006 UPC 672590100622
$23.99 USD for two-CD digipak and booklet with all texts
IF YOU WISH TO BUY DIRECT FROM US AT PELAGOSMUSIC.
WE APPRECIATE IT. WE ARE PAUL HALLEY.

Finalist for the 2018 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Award and Nominee Best Classical Recording ECMA 2019.

Choral sheet music is available for all tracks on this album - see link list lower left.

Links for Youtube tracks at lower portion of this page.

Description

In this stunning double CD set, with a repertoire sequence that is thoughtfully balanced and considered, Paul Halley features sixteen new choral works from among his catalogue of commissions of recent years. Halley's well-known style of combining threads of vibrant harmonies, lyrical melodies, and intricate rhythms, abounds in these songs set to underlay a diverse range of texts, from George Herbert and Gerard Manley Hopkins to Emily Dickinson and Pablo Neruda. Common themes emerge from the selection of texts on the album, the forward movement of the Earth in Tennyson's "Move Eastward, Happy Earth" and Roberts' "In The Wide Awe And Wisdom Of The Night", man in relation to God in Herbert's "The Pulley" and Hopkins' "God's Grandeur", and declarations of love in such works as Dickinson's "A Brighter Garden" and Neruda's "You Gather Things To You." In fact, Halley composed five of the works on the recording as gifts for the weddings of his children and step-children.

Keramion Singers, comprised professional singers and choral scholars who work with Paul Halley in Halifax, present these works at Halley's direction with a vocal and sensemble sound that is alternatively bright and present or rounded and atmospheric, depending on the mood being conveyed. Four a cappella pieces showcase the choir's impeccable tuning and phrasing, while the twelve accompanied works, with Halley on organ and piano, and instrumentalists on trumpet, saxophone, or French horn, and timpani, reveal the singer's mastery of thythmic range and contextual expression.

This long-awaited release on the Pelagosmusic label is sure to please those who admire Paul Halley's work as a composer, as well as by those who are familiar with his mastery of keyboard performance and the pure choral sound he elicits from his renowned choirs.

Composer Notes

The sixteen compositions on this recording are selected from among works commissioned of Paul Halley during the past decade. Each commission came with certain parameters, as well as a specific text proposed by the comissioning organization or individuals. These texts cover a wide range, from the poetry of George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Emily Dickinson and Pablo Neruda, to the psalter and the Song of Mary. Paul Halley notes, "It is significant that each text was chosen not by me, but by those for whom the musical setting was to be created. The words themselves pushed me into areas of musical expression that I might otherwise have left unexplored. For example, the poem “In The Wide Awe And Wisdom Of The Night” called for a setting based on an octatonic scale and Hopkins’ sonnet generated a passacaglia of irregular (‘sprung’) rhythms and broken phrases. At times, I felt I wasn’t so much composing as translating, just as the poets themselves had translated brief glimpses of universal mysteries. These poems are clearly sufficient unto themselves, but perhaps, being sung, aspects of their inner power and beauty are made more manifest."

Reviews

For anyone with the slightest propensity to be moved by music, Paul Halley's work may at once leave you breathless, excited and/or in tears. Such is his latest ineffable outing on the Pelagos label: In The Wide Awe And Wisdom - a tasteful mix of the sacred and secular, commissioned works and those composed for special occasions for family. After countless recordings of the music of others, (often characteristically and colorfully arranged by him), this modest genius, highly decorated in the world of jazz (five Grammy Awards, no less) and internationally respected in the world of choral and organ music, needed more than a little nudging to finally commit a collection of his own choral works to disc.

The music on this new CD is fresh and new with a hint of innocence and obvious joy provided by the youthful choristers, the Keramion Singers. They are in the company of some sensitive and thoughtful musicians.

Ever present in Halley's music is the palpable thread of pure jazz and this new recording is no exception. His jazz leanings render his music instantly recognizable. The attention to detail is ever-present in Halley's sensitive writing - inventive and colourful, sometimes unnerving, the dissonance sometimes sustained yet almost always resolved. From the dark but beautifully ethereal title track, 'In The Wide Awe And Wisdom', we journey through colourful hamonic changes in 'The Pulley', to the delicate serenity of 'My Beloved Spake' and finally, to the triumphant 'Laudate Dominum', perfectly placed as the final treack and prompting, on my part at least, spontaneous applause.

- Irene G. Wilkinson, Novemeber 2017.  

Credits

PRODUCTION

Meg Race, Executive Producer
Produced by Paul Halley & Meg Race
Engineered by John D. S. Adams, Stonehouse Sound
Art design and production by Kate Sinclair-Sowerby, Co. & Co.
Art supervision by Meg Race

Recorded at The Cathedral Church of All Saints, Halifax, NS


KERAMION SINGERS
Paul Halley, director
Nick Halley, assistant director

The current roster of Keramion Singers comprises professional musicians and choral scholars who regularly sing with Paul Halley at the institutions in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he serves as Director of Music. 

Sopranos
Jen Hall
Elizabeth Halley
Vanessa Halley
Janelle Lucyk
Marielle Nicol
Dominique Saulnier

Altos
Anne Bell
Katie Merwin
Sarah Myatt
Alan Rempel
Karis Tees

Tenors
Nick Halley
Paul Rogers
Nicolas Veltmeyer
Ben Von Bredow
Jamie Whitley

Basses
Simon Blake
Shaylan Burkhart
Steve Roe
Leo Timmins
David Wallis


INSTRUMENTALISTS
Paul Halley organ and piano
Nicolas Veltmeyer organ, “A Brighter Garden”
Tristan De Borba soprano saxophone
Curtis Dietz trumpet
Erin Donovan timpani and cymbals
Gina Patterson french horn


ART
The painting used in the design of this package is “Voice of Joy” © 2017 by Marina Malvada, www.marinamalvada.com. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

PUBLISHED MUSIC
All of the musical compositions on this recording are by Paul Halley and are
available from Pelagos Incorporated at www.pelagosmusic.com.

THANKS TO
The Very Reverend Paul Smith, Dean of the Cathedral Church of All Saints, Halifax, NS
The Reverend Dr. Gary Thorne, Chaplain of the University of King’s College, Halifax, NS. 

DEDICATION
Meg and Paul dedicate this recording to the memory of their dear friend, Tom Bates (d. 2017), who was sound engineer for the previous nine recordings on the Pelagosmusic (and Joyful Noise) label.



© 2017 Pelagos Incorporated
All Rights Reserved
Made in USA