MP3/MPEG4 sound files
"... another mighty angel ..." - 11 Dec 2006
notes and media
Dedicated to John Howes
U.K. Premiere
commissioned for the exhibition of Angels, this performance has been made possible with funds from Hull College and St Marys' Lowgate.
Duration: 12 minutes
I was deeply affected by the superscription of the fifth movement of the Organ Symphony by Malcolm Williamson: '... he lifted up his eyes from London pavements, and beheld Christ walking on Thames water and Jacob's ladder shining over Charing Cross'. This work sets a vision of the 'angel who announces the end of time' in a similar context.
The Book of Revelation of St John the Divine has the following text at verse 1:
Rev. 10:1 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars ... he planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down." Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, "There will be no more delay! [literally: time shall be no longer!]
As with Williamsons' work, I have set a primarily spiritual event in a very everyday context - here a rainy day gives way, suddenly and overwhelmingly, to a vast angelic vision, in which the angel uses a universal language to deliver the message: " ... there shall be time no longer" ...
© J.S. 2006
U.K. Premiere
commissioned for the exhibition of Angels, this performance has been made possible with funds from Hull College and St Marys' Lowgate.
Duration: 12 minutes
I was deeply affected by the superscription of the fifth movement of the Organ Symphony by Malcolm Williamson: '... he lifted up his eyes from London pavements, and beheld Christ walking on Thames water and Jacob's ladder shining over Charing Cross'. This work sets a vision of the 'angel who announces the end of time' in a similar context.
The Book of Revelation of St John the Divine has the following text at verse 1:
Rev. 10:1 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars ... he planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down." Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, "There will be no more delay! [literally: time shall be no longer!]
As with Williamsons' work, I have set a primarily spiritual event in a very everyday context - here a rainy day gives way, suddenly and overwhelmingly, to a vast angelic vision, in which the angel uses a universal language to deliver the message: " ... there shall be time no longer" ...
© J.S. 2006