The Green Road

Led by Eamonn Dougan of The Sixteen, Chamber Choir Ireland explores the beauty of nature and our relationship to the environment in The Green Road. Cecilia McDowall's The skies in their magnificence is a setting of part of Thomas Traherne’s poem, Wonder, expressing awe and joy at the beauty of the skies. Kenneth Leighton's setting of God's Grandeur—a poem written by Gerard Manley Hopkins in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution—marvels at the magnificence of the natural world, and despairs at our disconnection from it. Bernard Hughes' Precious Things revolves around three precious but diminishing natural resources: gold, helium, and oil. Cipriano de Rore's Descendi in hortum meum depicts a lush garden in bloom, in a setting of Song of Solomon. Finally, witness the world premiere of a new commission by Eoghan Desmond, Guthanna ar an gCnoc (Voices on the Hill). This setting of 6 Irish language poems by Ceaití Ní Bheildiúin takes the listener on a climb up Mount Brandon—a spiritual journey away from the modern, industrial world, returning to a state of harmony with nature, and beginning "a new life" on "the green road”.