Hymnus: Vocal Score, Vocal Score

Firmly rooted in the tradition of large-scale English choral works, Hymnus was Nicholas Maw's first large-scale work for choir and orchestra. Written in 1996, the 30-minute work is made up of two settings of early-Christian texts, St Ambrose's Hymn at Dawn and the anonymous sixth-century Evening Hymn (`Te lucis ante terminum'). The general feeling of the work is one of spacious monumentality. The first movement handbells pick out plangent Stravinskian harmonies, and a number of coruscating climaxes of brass and percussion alternate with gentler, more prayerful passages, including a set of expansive and limpid unison responses. The second movement's crepuscular mood is imbued with a mystical quality reminiscent of Holst.