Robert Kyr: The Cloud of Unknowing

Music for choir and string orchestra by Robert Kyr
Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson & Company of Voices

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Craig Hella Johnson leads Conspirare, soprano Estelí Gomez, baritone David Farwig, and the Victoria Bach Festival string orchestra in this first recording of three choral works by Robert Kyr (b. 1952). Exploring the relationship between human and divine love, his cantatas The Cloud of Unknowing (2013) and Songs of the Soul (2011) transfixed audiences and critics alike when Conspirare premiered them. – from Harmonia Mundi package notes

“A powerful new achievement in American music that vividly traces a journey from despair to transcendence.” — The Wall Street Journal, concert review

Track Listing
  1. THE SINGER’S ODE (2012)

THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING (2013)

PART I: SONGS OF NIGHT

  1. I. Unknowing
  2. II. Fearing
  3. III. Forgetting
  4. IV. Longing

PART II. SONGS OF DAWN

  1. I. Waiting
  2. II. Thinking
  3. III. Beseeching
  4. IV. Piercing
  5. V. Surrendering
  6. VI. Enduring

SONGS OF THE SOUL (2011)

  1. I. Descending: From the Abyss
  2. II. Venturing: On a Dark Night
  3. III. Hoping: Toward Dawn
  4. IV. Transforming: Beloved into Lover
  5. V. Arising: A Time for Song
  6. VI. Uniting: Leaving My Cares
  7. VII. Transcending: And Love Remains

Harmonia Mundi HMU 807577 – 76’48”

Recorded June 2013 at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi Performing Arts Center, Corpus Christi, TX

Release Date: 07/08/2014
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Catalog Number: 807577