< World Premiere >
GABRIEL JACKSON : A Vision of Aeroplanes
for unaccompanied choir (6S. 4A. 4T. 4B.)
Friday 17 October, 1997 – St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge, England
The BBC Singers, cond. Simon Joly
“Although it takes its title from Vaughan Williams, the model for 'A Vision of Aeroplanes' is the large-scale votive antiphon of the late 15th century (as exemplified by the pieces in the Eton Choirbook) with its sequence of richly scored tuttis alternating with reduced-voice sections (here scored for solo voices). The names of various aircraft are encrypted into the score : the structural proportions are derived from that of what is undoubtedly the most beautiful ever built - the AEROSPATIALE/BAC CONCORDE . The tutti sections (and the double gimell at 'Tandem dominationem') are each based on a different cantus firmus; these canti firmi are not of plainchant origin but are plainchant substitutes derived, again, from the names of some of the most significant aircraft in the development of aviation. They appear in the piece in the chronological order of their construction: WRIGHT FLYER, SOPWITH CAMEL, SUPERMARINE SPITFIRE, DE HAVILLAND COMET, AVRO VULCAN, HAWKER HARRIER, LOCKHEED BLACKBIRD, DASSAULT BREGUET MIRAGE, BOEING 747 and NORTHROP B2.”
— Gabriel Jackson