Stella celi (2021)
Peter Child
Stella celi is a short work for cello solo based upon an early renaissance hymn. The hymn’s text is a plea for divine mercy and intervention in times of illness and plague, and several musical settings of it survive, some plainchant, some polyphonic. Stella celi is based on one of those settings, a fifteenth-century chant. The music adapts and transforms the borrowed music in a variety of ways, culminating in a fraught, chromatic climax that is far from the placid, modal world of plainchant. The piece was commissioned by the Association for the Promotion of New Music, one of several ‘masked music’ commissions for composer/performer pairs. The composer and performer are both very grateful to APNM for providing us with the opportunity to take this rewarding step in our rich, ongoing artistic relationship.
Peter Child
Stella celi is a short work for cello solo based upon an early renaissance hymn. The hymn’s text is a plea for divine mercy and intervention in times of illness and plague, and several musical settings of it survive, some plainchant, some polyphonic. Stella celi is based on one of those settings, a fifteenth-century chant. The music adapts and transforms the borrowed music in a variety of ways, culminating in a fraught, chromatic climax that is far from the placid, modal world of plainchant. The piece was commissioned by the Association for the Promotion of New Music, one of several ‘masked music’ commissions for composer/performer pairs. The composer and performer are both very grateful to APNM for providing us with the opportunity to take this rewarding step in our rich, ongoing artistic relationship.
