£12.77 £10.64 Ex vat
Like to a flower | Choral music by Annabel Rooney
The Choir of Christ’s College, Cambridge
David Rowland
Description
‘Like to a flower’ is the second album dedicated to the music of Annabel Rooney, following the success of ‘As a seed bursts forth’, released in 2019. These beautiful and approachable settings of traditional texts bring a fresh and original voice to the growing repertoire of sacred choral music by female composers. The disc opens with a ‘mini’ Evensong: Introit; Preces; Psalm; Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis; Responses and Anthem, together with a Mass, anthems, and motets for all the seasons of the church’s year.
Annabel Rooney read music at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and continued her studies in Cambridge with postgraduate research on eighteenthcentury
opera. Rooney turned to composition comparatively late, when her youngest child was starting school, mostly writing choral music.
Her music has been performed by many choirs in the UK and overseas, including Exeter and Ely Cathedrals, Bath Abbey, York Minster, the Chapel Royal, and King’s Voices and broadcast on Choral Evensong on Radio 3. Her music is published by Selah, and Oxford University Press, notably in the ‘Breath of Song’ anthology of music by women composers.
Track List
Keep me as the apple of the eye
3:02Preces
1:07Psalm 54
2:24Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in A minor
Magnificat
4:08 Nunc Dimittis
2:46Lesser Litany and The Lord’s Prayer
6:57The God of love my shepherd is
3:10Mass in C sharp minor
Kyrie
1:31Gloria
2:02Sanctus
1:28 Benedictus
1:07Agnus Dei
2:46Drop, drop, slow tears 2:53
Thou art my life
3:43To God our strength
1:54Unto the hills mine eyes I lift
2:20Jesu dulcis memoria
4:17Ave verum corpus
3:12’Tis winter now
2:56Surrexit Christus
1:58Truth from the earth
2:49Love came down at Christmas
3:14Lullaby
4:17This day, good Lord
4:40Total Playing time: 70:41
Production credits
Recorded on 18–20 March 2022 in the Chapel of Queens’ College, Cambridge
Recording producer and engineer: Gary Cole.
Recording assistant: Pippa Cole
Sample audio extracts
Reviews
‘…excellent tone, tuning, and diction under the direction of David Rowland… There is plenty of variety, especially for anyone who enjoys the English choral tradition… Her compositional style is interesting, with lots of word painting and colour… all Rooney’s compositions are expressive and accessible.’ Yorkshire Times February 2024
