The Cecilia, under the baton of Donald Teeters with Barbara Bruns at the organ, excelled at interpreting the works of Woodman. His music is grounded in a highly tonal sensibility with some extended harmonies that colorfully enrich the text. Furthermore, his text setting seemed to be of a different age, like many of the Renaissance composers, where the marriage of text and music are intricately bound together by a cohesive understanding of implied and explicit meaning. And the Cecilia beautifully portrayed these intricacies. Whether it be the stark transitions of homophony to heterophony to polyphony in Divinum Mysterium, or the concluding text of The Midwife’s Tale; where the words “child, born of sunlight, radiant, laughing, perfect, eyes flashing lightning!” seem to effervesce from the choir as if being spontaneously contrived as an act of creation or genesis. Which, incidentally, is the essence of the text and message conveyed by Woodman.

---