Welcoming Richard Allain

We’re truly thrilled to welcome Richard Allain to our Choral Now series with a beautiful new carol/winter piece — a stunning setting of Emily Dickinson’s ‘It sifts from leaden sieves’ (The Snow) for SATB and harp or piano. The work was commissioned by Schola Cantorum of London’s Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School Music and premiered in December 2021.

Richard Allain’s music captures the unruffled mystery of a perfect snow-scene, imagined in words by reclusive New England poet Emily Dickinson. Conveying stillness in its rippling chords and delicate figuration, the harp (or piano) adds atmosphere and a most delicate background to the choir’s calm rendition of the poem, in five verses that compare the snow to alabaster wool, and to a crystal veil cast over ‘summer’s empty room’. Well known for his work in education as well as for his widely performed choral works, the composer here adds to the repertoire of winter music a fine score that will leave a haunting impression in any seasonal programme. More…