When is music secular and when is it sacred? Contemporary composer David Lang’s the little match girl passion questions the need for clear distinctions when we are immersed in such powerful music and moved by such compelling stories. We accompany the little match girl on her journey with some the most ancient (yet startlingly modern) music for multiple voices ever written.

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Key works

David Lang - the little match girl passion (2008)

Pérotin - Viderunt Omnes (c. 1128)

 

Performance notes

It is the last day of the year and, in the snow, a little girl tries unsuccessfully to sell matches on the street. The warmth of each match she lights provides a fleeting vision of festive plenitude and her grandmother, the only person to have shown her love.

 

American composer David Lang’s setting of this 19th Century Children’s story (Hans Christian Andersen’s darkest and most transcendent) is paired with ancient polyphonic music from the Notre Dame school. Both rely on a cumulative, expressive intensity and momentum, achieved through hypnotic repetition and rhythm.

 

Winning the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2008, the piece was written for four singers who also play percussion instruments. The Working Consort have taken a new approach to ensemble to tell the story of the match girl; a poignant and starkly relevant reminder of ongoing child poverty around the world. We pair the Lang with vocal music of the 12th Century, showing just how modern the earliest polyphony can sound in the company of contemporary works, as well as providing a similarly mesmerising aural experience.

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Run time - approximately 1hr