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Sky of My Heart on SACD

One of the foremost vocal chamber ensembles active

today, New York Polyphony is renowned for it's

innovative programming ranging from Gregorian chant

to contemporary commissions. On Sky of my Heart, the

selection spans over four hundred years of musical

history and bears witness to this vocal ensemble's

commitment to discovering and developing new works

that augment it's core early music repertoire.

Some of the works performed here deal with the

essential themes of life, death and the afterlife and have

been inspired by personal bereavement (Smith) or by

the impact of Covid confinement (Moravec). Others are

steeped in a spiritual atmosphere, whether religious

(Byrd, Moody, Tavener and McGlade) or meditative

(Naito). The contemporary works, some of which were

written at the behest of New York Polyphony, are firmly

rooted in the rich history of plainsong, while at the same

time featuring some very contemporary harmonies.

The vocal ensemble is joined by LeStrange Viols in three

pieces: My Days by Nico Muhly, a ritualized tribute to

the early 17th-century English composer Orlando

Gibbons, The Silver Swan by Gibbons himself, which

brings the programme to an appropriately quiet and

poignant close, and Byrd's Agnus Dei. The viol ensemble

adds a colour that is both appropriate for Gibbons and

original in it's treatment of sound.