COMPOSER’S NOTE

This is the fourth piece of the Revelation collection and creates a period of stillness between more energetic movements.  The warm key of D Flat Major, the largo tempo and the rich harmonies make for a musical setting quite different from Handel’s work of the same title in Messiah and invokes a peaceful intimacy as the listener is drawn into the deep pain of looking upon ‘the lamb who was slain’.

I wrote this piece very early one spring morning when all was still and my outlook was a beautiful English church surrounded by different shades of green.  It is my hope that this stillness and beauty is imbued throughout the musical setting of such tender words.

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“Revelation … shows how inventive [Hawes] can be with harmony … moving lines in contrary motion to create crunchy dissonances then cleverly melding mellifluous modal melodies with bright tonal interjections … ” GRAMOPHONE

“There is no denying the beauty and immediate allure of Hawes’s writing.  Revelation has considerable attractiveness and appeal … the mood is enraptured [with] a dramatic and visionary quality.” CHURCH TIMES