he poetry in The Angle of the Sun contains angels as well as angles. Paul Goodman calls on Angel Courage, while Mark Van Doren praises "the good angel doubt." Goodman, John Dryden and the early medieval hymn Veni Creator Spiritus (attributed to the Archbishop of Mainz, Hrabanus Maurus) all invoke the Creator Spirit. The music in which this poetry is set is what I think of as Northern Symphonic — rather stark, perhaps wintry, concerned with landscapes more than with figures, using shades of black and white rather than colors. Images of light and shadow are prominent in the Van Doren poems, as when the painter depicted in The Angle of the Sun (perhaps a "creative spirit") uses the sun's shadows to create "dark sleepers." In Praise Doubt, Van Doren cautions against "faith's innumerable caverns." The human figures in the landscape are represented musically by the mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, and poetically by the more personal of the modern American poems, So Simple and Unanswerable by Mark Van Doren and the four "Little Prayers" of Paul Goodman.

Though The Angle of the Sun includes the bulk of the Latin hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, (the same hymn set by Mahler in the first movement of his Eighth Symphony) the music to the original chant turns up only intermittently. A more pervasive early-music presence is the Pange Lingua chant, especially in its mass setting by Josquin des Pres — this music informs the entire opening choral movement, as well as occasional passages for the two soloists.

The texts in Part 1 are treated as corporate prayer rather than as personal statement or petition. Even the soloists, who enter singing the Dryden paraphrase of the Latin, are paired, singing more rhetorically than personally. Accordingly, this movement's continuity is determined by the rhythm and harmony rather than by the text or even the vocal lines, which are folded into the larger texture. This method is reversed in part 2, where the text gains primacy, in a series of linked solos, choruses and instrumental interludes. The shift to an emphasis on the text is signalled by the use of the first person singular in the first two solos ("Why are my songs so simple" and "Help, Angel Courage, for I wooed confusion..."). In this part of the piece, Goodman's passionate supplications are contrasted with Van Doren's cooler meditations.

The arrangement of the sections in Part 2 forms an arch whose midpoint is the choral setting of Van Doren's Truth. The two orchestral interludes surround this movement; surrounding these are musically related settings of Van Doren's Praise Doubt and The Angle of the Sun. The two Goodman prayers to the Creator Spirit are paired in their emphasis on women's voices and harp. Part 2 begins and ends with brief solos. Interleaved with this structure are continuing verses of the Latin hymn from Part 1.

The Angle of the Sun is dedicated to Donald Teeters and Boston Cecilia. It was commissioned with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, in celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Mr. Teeters' directorship.

© 2004 Scott Wheeler. All rights reserved.

The Boston Cecilia performed this work at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston on April 9, 1994.