Al is Alles Stil (2022)

Al is Alles Stil was written for the Dutch choir Capella Vocale for their 25th anniversary concert in October 2022. On the one hand it is a work of celebration and festivity, however, as the world emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic, it is also tinged with sadness and nostalgia at all that was lost and could have been. The work sets a direct and emotive poem by Vrouwkje Tuinman, Mijn hart zingt door (‘My heart sings on’) which praises the act of singing and the relationships formed in doing so. I took the ‘action’ of the poem as an impulse to write the piece, the lines ‘I sing until you and I come closer’ and ‘My song finds you’ being taken in an almost literal fashion in my work with the female voices gradually moving closer to the males before an impassioned finale chorale on the words ‘My heart sings on.’