Gabriel Jackson's Ubi Caritas for unaccompanied SATB choir. This anthem juxtaposes the words of the Antiphon for the Washing of Feet on Maundy Thursday with 'The red rose whispers of passion' by the poet John Boyle O'Reilly. Jackson combines lyrical polyphonic phrases for upper and lower voices with atmospheric passages for full choir frequently accompanied by repeated half-whispered text in free…
Eurydice is based on a work by the great Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay - a series of six large stones installed in a garden in Provence set in a sea of lavender (representing water) and inscribed with a simple poetic text each line of which begins with 'Eurydice' and is followed by a natural phenomenon 'the mountain-tops' 'the oaks' etc. The piece is in eleven sections. Each section begi…
Not no faceless Angel is a beautifully reflective work. The themes of loss and love are articulated through expressive melodic lines and touching imagery.
for SATB unaccompanied O fear the Lord sets two verses from Psalm 34. A controlled organum-style opening gives way to a more fervent harmonic middle section. An approachable and beautiful piece.
This is a joyful work for organ and trumpet. Jackson employs a sectional structure contrasting celebratory clamorous writing with moments of intimacy and reflection.
Spring Rounds is a significant work that is rich in variety and orchestral colours. Jackson has selected texts by a multiplicity of authors from the seventeenth-century poet Thomas Carew to contemporary writer Billy Collins to create a profound and interesting reflection on the titular season.
In this spacious motet Jackson creates an original sound-world in praise of the Virgin Mary. Traditional Latin texts are combined with a Christina Rossetti poem celebrating the Annunciation.
This is a setting of the words used to conclude a communion service: 'The Mass is ended thanks be to God.' The tenor's heraldic opening leads into the highly rhythmic 'Deo Gratias' section. Ideal for the end of a festal or celebratory Mass.
Paperback-Gabriel Jackson's I Say That We Are Wound With Mercy for SATB with Organ accompaniment.Setting a section from 'The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air we Breathe' by Gerard Manley Hopkins this Marian piece opens with an extended soprano passage underpinned by soft yet characterful organ writing. Several hallmarks of Jackson's style are evident including soaring melismatic Soprano line…
For SSATB (with divisions) unaccompanied. This setting of a poem by William Blake is evocative and appealing. Jackson ingeniously offsets simple pure harmonies against moments of chromaticism to create beautiful fresh music which perfectly captures the essence of the words.New Horizons showcases the wealth of exciting innovative and occasionally challenging choral music being written today. It…
This work was awarded the British Composer Award for Liturgical Music in 2003 but is published for the first time in 2013. The Roman Catholic Liturgy includes an antiphon to the Magnificat at Vespers O Doctor optime which Jackson sets incorporating medieval influences such as plainsong.
Written in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Tallis Scholars this joyful and virtuosic antiphon captures a sense of both jubilation and devotion in keeping with the spirit of the anniversary.
Gabriel Jackson's Nightingale Fragments for SATB (with divisions) unaccompanied. The text for this vibrant part-song is a deftly chosen selection of lines from Keats' Ode to a Nightingale. Premiered by the Vigala Singers in 2017 Jackson's setting features many of the composer's stylistic hallmarks: glissandi decorative melismas aleatoric patterns and solo lines that float above the texture. Hi…
The Coral Sea takes its title and structure from the prose poem of the same name that Patti Smith wrote as a memorial to the great photographer Robert Mapplethorpe who died in 1989.
Gabriel Jackson's Vox Clara Ecce Intonat for SATB (with divisions) and soprano Saxophone.Setting the original Latin text of the hymn better known as 'Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding' Jackson creates an Advent piece of beautiful stillness. The largely homophonic Choral parts with a soloist supplying a gentle contrapuntal line are contrasted with light and graceful interjections from the Saxo…
Setting Joseph Addison's text Jackson explores the use of vivid imagery the poem provides through this dramatic medium. Rather than using the full forces of choir brass and organ throughout the piece proceeds through varied antiphonal groupings accompanying typically imaginative choral writing.
Ever-changing in mood and pace La Musique is a setting of poems by Elizabeth Bishop and Charles Baudelaire on the transformative power of music. Jackson musically represents the complex psychological shifts contained in the texts' metaphors through alternating fully notated and indeterminate passages.
Gabriel Jackson's Creator Of The Stars Of Night for SATB and Organ.This mellifluous Advent setting opens in a still and contemplative mood reminiscent of plainsong before a thrilling section heralded by the first entry of the organ. The piece finishes as it began - a perfect Advent blend of meditation and drama.
This beautiful chamber work takes its inspiration from an artist's book by the Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay 'A Litany A Requiem'. This book lists on alternate red white and blue paper plants from the month of Prairial (May-June in the French Revolutionary Calendar) set against a list of revolutionaries guillotined in the month of Thermidor (July-August). The work is in two movements - '…
This dramatic setting of a 5th-century Ambrosian hymn perfectly epitomises the jubilation of the text. Rhythmically complex and involving some tricky melismatic passages it is particularly suited to cathedral choirs and concert performance.
Commissioned by The Maryland State Boychoir in 2017 this striking Christmas piece sets a famous text by Ben Jonson. Jackson's attractive and largely diatonic harmonies combine with vivid word-setting deft manipulations of texture and a colourful organ part to create a mood of gentle rapture with a central section that explores more conflicted atmospheres.
This major work by one of Britain's leading choral composers was commissioned by St Mary's Cathedral Edinburgh. Jackson's only mass to date the setting is terse and direct in the manner of the Poulenc Mass and the textures often unusually pared-down. By turns fiery and exuberant and inward and numinous the music includes a huge variety of textures and techniques including flower melismas l…
Jackson's Holy Is The True Light sets a text translated from the Salisbury Diurnal that emphasizes the solace of faith in times of conflict. The fluid changes in time and key signatures and effective division of voices create a strong musical impression of serenity and strength.
O Virgo Virginum by Gabriel Jackson for solo Tenor and SSATB unaccompanied.Following on from the publication of Jackson's settings of the seven 'O' antiphons under the title Seven Advent Antiphons O Virgo virginum is a setting of the Latin text recognised as the eighth 'O' antiphon and performed as such in many Christian traditions. Jackson's imaginative setting features a melismatic line for ten…
Rhapsody in Red is based on a 'textwork' by the British artist Richard Long - Red Walk Bristol to Dawlish - which lists objects seen on a walk from Bristol to Dawlish and the distances along the walk that they were seen at. The music which is characterized by repetitive figurations has a mesmerising ecstatic quality.
This piece stems from an ongoing partnership between the composer and the writer Richard George Elliott. The profound sentiments expressed in Elliot's poem about the firmament are evoked by Jackson's use of colourful shimmering textures and an underlying sense of spaciousness. An impressive concert work this is complex but utterly compelling choral writing.
Commissioned by the Church of the Immaculate Conception Farm Street London this a cappella setting of the 4th Century Latin prayer is a hymn of praise to the Virgin Mary.
Setting Joseph Addison's text Jackson explores the use of vivid imagery the poem provides through this dramatic medium. Rather than using the full forces of choir brass and organ throughout the piece proceeds through varied antiphonal groupings accompanying typically imaginative choral writing.
