Muhly: Small Raine

Part five of the 2022 Bridge of Dreams:

Another highlight from our live performances in October 2022, Nico Muhly's Small Raine combines a sacred text from the candlelight service of Compline with the sixteenth century secular text and melody 'Westron Wynde'. The piece with gentle calls of that melody, before gradually becoming more and more dense, both harmonically and rhythmically, building from a gentle rain into a full-on storm. Muhly seems to take us to the peaceful eye of the hurricane, and after an intimate cry for salvation, the rains almost subside into a prayer, through lush chords and chains of suspensions, until we're left with gentle closing utterances of 'salve'.