As a personal practise, I have divided my days into sections, each starting with meditation and resembling - albeit loosely - the Offices of the Anglican Church and Buddhist tradition.

The day’s sections proceed according to typical routines whether they include work in the gardens, tennis and workouts, rehearsal, correspondences, composing, friends, etc., but each section begins with meditation.

The Anglican canonical hour called “vespers,” the term coming from the Greek “hespera” and Latin “vesper” meaning “evening” ushers in my meditations to this stunning choral work “Lux Aurumque” (“Golden Light”).

Composed around the 1971 poem by Edward Esch which was then translated into Latin, Whitacre says that he decided on a simple approach for the work and “....waited patiently for the right harmonies to shimmer and glow.”

There are multiple recordings of this piece, vocal and instrumental, which is only appropriate as golden light manifests itself differently over time. The first light of day is “enceint” with potential; shy at first but not for long before it shows itself seasoned with reds, greens, white. Then there is evening golden light which has already given birth to revelations ocular and existential and now has achieved its calm resolve, felt the far reaching finger of the moon’s outstretched and embraced the shadow which draws attention away from sight in favour of the other senses for when darkness comes and sight is impaired fragrance is enhanced, hearing amplified and touch made more sensitive.

Liszt’s Transcendental Etude called “Evening Harmonies” is just such a vesper song to me, the day being much spent and time has come for introspection, but this is just my personal association with this piece and time of day however one may infer that Liszt was of the same mindset, given his choice of title to this evocative piano work. 

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