Adams, J.L. - Canticles of the Holy Wind

Lauded by the New York Times as a "...hypnotic and ethereally beautiful invocation of wind, sky and birdsong," John Luther Adams' Canticles of the Holy Wind, performed by the renowned chamber choir The Crossing, is his most technically challenging choral work, and yet the music's mesmerizing aura of stillness encourages listening at its most elemental. The piece is composed for four choirs of eight singers each, and moves through spaces that are as fantastical ("Sky with Four Suns") as they are serene ("The Hour of the Doves"), always with a connection to our inner world, as well as the world around us.

"John allows us to interrupt our otherwise endlessly forward-tumbling lives," notes Donald Nally, The Crossing's conductor, "and experience these sounds as if we were sitting in the woods for an hour. An hour of wind and of sky and of birds. We are drawn to this music, not just for the beauty of its shimmering harmonies and the overwhelming climactic moments, but also for way it inspires a 'hearing' of nature, in real time, as we sing it."