House Of Winter is a setting of four Christmas poems by George Mackay Brown for AATBBB or SATBBB a cappella choir. The music is continuous and though scored for unaccompanied voices it becomes almost orchestra in itsevocation of the calm frozen stillness of an Orkney winter on the one hand and the wildness of a December storm on the other.The setting is largely homphonic in Davies’s 'adult' modal style and with a characteristicinventiveness of vocal scoring as in the storm sequence with its whistling upper voices and eruptive bass line.The first performance took place during the tenth St. Magnus Festival as part of a concert given by The King'sSingers in Kirkwall in June 1986.Vocal score with piano accompaniment for rehearsal purposes.
