The Moon-Welcome

Moonbook Chapter 5: The Moon-Welcome (1999) is based on an old Gaelic text, an “invocation” to the moon. Although the complete poem is heard in the course of the piece, it is surrounded throughout by individual sounds derived from the phonemes of the text. After an introduction of spoken, whispered and hummed sounds, solo voices introduce the words. After the text unfolds, coming to rest on a unison hummed note, the music explodes into a non-coordinated wheel of sound: individuals, small groups and large groups, all welcoming the moon.