For the Time Being:  Advent
(1986) for unaccompanied chorus and Narrator
Text by W.H. Auden
SATB & Narrator
Duration: 23 minutes
Commissioned by the BBC for the BBC Singers

First Performance:  27 April 1987, St John's Smith Square, London
BBC Singers, John Poole conductor

US Premier: May 31, 2003, St. Peter's Church, New York
New York Virtuoso Singers
Michael York, narrator
Harold Rosenbaum, conductor

Publisher:  Novello & Co Ltd

Critical Acclaim:

"For the Time Being: Advent," (is) an absorbing setting of the first portion of W. H. Auden's brutal 1945 poem about the darkness and barbarism that had engulfed Europe. One particularly potent section featured (an actor) reciting the text in increasingly fevered tones above the swirling chorus. Ms. Musgrave's score is laced with carefully controlled dissonances that emerge from the surrounding textures, sting the ears and then retreat.
— Jeremy Eichler, The New York Times, 05/06/2003

Although born in Scotland, composer Thea Musgrave (b. 1928) is a longtime US resident; she recently retired after a distinguished tenure as Professor of Composition at the City University of New York. Throughout her career, she has excelled at writing for voices, composing songs, operas and choral music. The works collected on this disc show the wide range of experiment and expressivity abundant in her writing for voices. The Black Tambourine is a vivid setting of poems by Hart Crane. The voices are accompanied by percussion, which supplies a dance-like propulsion to several of its movements. For the Time Being: Advent, a nearly thirty minute setting of Auden, features spoken word narration by Michael York and an octet of soloists. Musgrave plays with space and density in this work, dispersing forces throughout the hall, employing attractive stacked harmonies, and juxtaposing solos, speech and lush choral passages. The overall effect is captivating. On the Underground Sets 1-3, groups of short settings of texts by various poets feature some dazzling writing as well. I'm particularly fond of Musgrave's setting of John Berry's "Benediction" and "Sometimes"; both are filled with sumptuous chords and interweaving contrapuntal lines. Musgrave's choral music is exciting fare, demonstrating a composer with absolute technical command and considerable sensitivity for text-setting.
— Christian Carey

For the Time being: Advent
W.H. Auden

W. H. Auden published his long poem 'For the Time Being' in 1945. It is headed by a dedication to the poet's mother who had died in 1941, and this quotation from Romans VI: 'What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.' The poem is subtitled 'A Christmas Oratorio', and was written with the intention (never fulfilled) that it should be set to music by Auden's regular collaborator at the time, Benjamin Britten.

This work is a setting of the whole of the first section of the poem, 'Advent', in a continuous 25-minute span. It respects the division into separate numbers implied by the layout of the poem, and includes a Narrator speaking the text of Part II, accompanied by the chorus singing fragments from the previous section, and echoing the Narrator's ironic prayer.

Recording:

For the Time Being: Advent
New York Virtuoso Singers, Harold Rosenbaum, conductor
Michael York, Narrator
Bridge records: Bridge 9161

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