The Same Stream & James Jordan – To Hold the Light (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

The Same Stream & James Jordan – To Hold the Light (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:30 minutes | 1,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © GIA ChoralWorks Spiritum

The music chosen for this recording is strangely and poignantly relevant, I believe, for each of us. We all now understand “The Fruit of Silence,” a motet that reminds us to visit those beliefs which are most sacred in the work by Cortlandt Matthews, or now, a deeply personal Requiem by Peter Relph that in reflection, remembers the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in this pandemic. And then there is the LaVoy work “O Great Beyond.” While all great texts speak to the universality of the human condition and, if are truthful, are timeless. Particularly the George Fox text set by Jackson Hill and the Tagore text set by LaVoy give us messages to reinforce the humanness of each of us for hope. Two works on this disc poignantly remind us of the passing of life in the Relph Requiem and especially the final movement of “O Great Beyond.” May these words give comfort to all those who endured the deepest of Life’s losses during our shared Pandemic journey. For, so many loved ones, goodbyes were said in silence, and alone.

It is our hope that all the music on this album will show us a way for living as we move forward and also give loving comfort to those who have lost loved ones.” (James Jordan)

For Quakers, wisdom begins in silence. Quakers believe that only when we have silenced our voices and our souls can we hear the ‘still small voice” that dwells within each of us–the voice of God that speaks to us and that we express to others through our deeds. Only by listening in stillness for that voice and letting it guide our actions can we truly let our lives speak (p.3) (Robert Lawrence Smith in A Quaker Book of Wisdom)

“The Universe works in strange ways. Recorded in 2018, none of us could have known that when this disc was released the world would have lived through a life-altering pandemic or a tumultuous upheaval in the cultural awareness that now surrounds us. And the work that opens this disc the words of Quaker George Fox ends with the words “So be faithful and live in that which doth not think the time long” provides an haunting premonition regarding the time in which we live. Quaker George Fox in “To Hold the Light’ is strangely prophetic about these days and perhaps contains a future caution for us all.

“The Same Stream Choir is truly world class. I have never known a body of singers convey so much warmth, humanity and mutual empathy. It has been an honour and a joy to work with them.” (Patrick Hawes)

Tracklist:
01. The Same Stream & James Jordan – Hill: To Hold the Light (08:37)
02. The Same Stream & James Jordan – LaVoy: O Great Beyond: I. In Your Eyes (04:10)
03. The Same Stream & James Jordan – LaVoy: O Great Beyond: II. In a Strange Land (04:40)
04. The Same Stream & James Jordan – LaVoy: O Great Beyond: III. In Silence (05:04)
05. The Same Stream & James Jordan – Matthews: Quoniam videbo caelos (08:19)
06. The Same Stream & James Jordan – Vasks: The Fruit of Silence (Version for A Capella Choir) (04:13)
07. The Same Stream & James Jordan – Relph: Requiem: Ia. Requiem aeternam (03:55)
08. The Same Stream & James Jordan – Relph: Requiem: Ib. Kyrie eleison (01:22)
09. The Same Stream & James Jordan – Relph: Requiem: IIa. Dies irae (05:07)
10. The Same Stream & James Jordan – Relph: Requiem: IIb. Sanctus (02:06)
11. The Same Stream & James Jordan – Relph: Requiem: III. Agnus Dei (06:47)
12. The Same Stream & James Jordan – Relph: Requiem: IVa. Communion (01:29)
13. The Same Stream & James Jordan – Relph: Requiem: IVb. Pie Jesu (04:45)
14. The Same Stream & James Jordan – Relph: Requiem: IVc. In paradisum (02:48)

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