And the Snow Did Lie
Hilary Tann composer
Sirius Quartet
Fung Chern Hwei violin
Gregor Huebner violin
Ron Lawrence viola
Jeremy Harman cello
New from Navona Records comes AND THE SNOW DID LIE, composed by Hilary Tann and performed by Sirius Quartet. Tann, a Welsh-born composer living in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains was inspired to write this commissioned work by a series of illustrations from the classic French-Canadian novel, Le Survenant. These images are included with the release of this digital single.
The music of AND THE SNOW DID LIE is broken into three movements, each depicting a season in the bleak northern landscape. Each of these is further broken into distinct sections. The first movement evokes the wasteland of late autumn with an murmuring drone pierced by the shrill voice of decay. The music develops to demonstrate both moments of startling intensity and deep tenderness. The second movement imagines the gentle snowfall of winter. Here, especially, the Sirius Quartet exhibits their sensitivity to the silences between the notes. Finally, the work concludes with a third movement that conjures up the floods of springtime with shivering tremolos, lyrical lines, and echoes of the previous textures.
AND THE SNOW DID LIE is a multimedia artwork to be appreciated by both the eyes and the ears. The powerful combination of Tann's expressive lyricism paired with Bergeron's master-lithography performed by the formidable skill and precision of the Sirius Quartet make this new digital single an event not to be missed.
Listen
"Tann’s music is shimmering and weightless, effective and moving."
Performance Video
Hilary Tann - And The Snow Did Lie | Sirius Quartet
Track Listing & Credits
| # | Title | Composer | Performer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | And the Snow Did Lie: I. Ragged Earth - II. A Single Cloud Reddened - III. Lake and Sky Black with Birds | Hilary Tann | Sirius Quartet | Fung Chern Hwei, violin; Gregor Huebner, violin; Ron Lawrence, viola; Jeremy Harman, cello | 9:09 |
| 02 | And the Snow Did Lie: IV. Wreathing Mists - V. Signs in the Sun - VI. The Weather Is White | Hilary Tann | Sirius Quartet | Fung Chern Hwei, violin; Gregor Huebner, violin; Ron Lawrence, viola; Jeremy Harman, cello | 9:24 |
| 03 | And the Snow Did Lie: VII. Winter Gives Way - VIII. Overcast with Rain - IX. Floods of May - X. Into Darkness | Hilary Tann | Sirius Quartet | Fung Chern Hwei, violin; Gregor Huebner, violin; Ron Lawrence, viola; Jeremy Harman, cello | 5:52 |
Recorded October 7, 2019 at Futura Productions in Roslindale MA
Session Producer Brad Michel
Session Engineer John Weston
Assistant Engineer Jacob Steingart
Lithography artworks, which appear throughout the CD packaging, were created by André Bergeron RCA
Executive Producer Bob Lord
Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
VP, Audio Production Jeff LeRoy
Audio Director Lucas Paquette
Recording Sessions Director Levi Brown
Editing, Mixing, and Mastering Brad Michel
VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Patrick Niland, Sara Warner
Artist Information
Hilary Tann
Welsh-born composer Hilary Tann lived in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York where she was the John Howard Payne Professor of Music Emerita at Union College, Schenectady. Her compositions have been widely performed and recorded by ensembles such as the European Women’s Orchestra, Tenebrae, Lontano, Marsyas Trio, Thai Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
Sirius Quartet
Sirius Quartet combines exhilarating repertoire with unequaled improvisational fire. These conservatory-trained performer-composers shine with precision, soul and raw energy, championing a forward-thinking, genre-defying approach. Since their debut concert at the original Knitting Factory in New York City, Sirius has played some of the most important venues in the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Beijing Music Festival, the Cologne Music Triennale, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Stuttgart Jazz, Musique Actuelle in Canada, the Taichung Jazz Fest — Taiwan’s biggest jazz event — and many others.
Notes
And The Snow Did Lie is based on a series of images created to illustrate Germaine Guèvremont’s French-Canadian classic novel, Le Survenant. André Bergeron was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2012. His ten lithographs have evocative titles drawn from the text of the novel. They depict a Northern landscape—from the wasteland of late autumn, through the gentling snow of winter, to springtime floods. The movements, played without a break, are “I. terre déguenillée (ragged earth);” “un seul nuage rougeoyait (a single cloud reddened);” “le firmament en est noir (lake and sky black with birds);” “II. des brouillards morts (wreathing mists);” “des signes dans le soleil (signs in the sun);” “le temps est blanc (the weather is white);” and, “III. l’hiver tirait donc au reste (winter gives way);” “le temps se rembrunit (overcast with rain);” “les grandes mers de mai (floods of May);” “il se perdit dans la nuit noire (into darkness).” The string quartet, And the Snow Did Lie,was commissioned by the Welsh Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts 2014, Artistic Director George Vass, with generous funding from the Colwinston Charitable Trust.
Artwork
Lithography Artworks By André Bergeron Rca
terre déguenillée (ragged earth)
un seul nuage rougeoyait (a single cloud reddened)
le firmament en est noir (lake and sky black with birds)
des brouillards morts (wreathing mists)
des signes dans le soleil (signs in the sun)
le temps est blanc (the weather is white)
l’hiver tirait donc au reste (winter gives way)
le temps se rembrunit (overcast with rain)
les grandes mers de mai (floods of May)
il se perdit dans la nuit noire (into darkness)
