A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass
cantata-concerto on poetry of Amy Lowell
A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass
ACDA National Conference - Movement 4 "A Winter Ride" with Houston Chamber Choir
Behind the Music Interview
Arts and culture expert St. John Flynn chats with conductor, composer and educator Dominick DiOrio. Deemed a "triple threat", Dominick is a former member, guest composer and guest conductor of the Houston Chamber Choir.
Scott Simpson, marimba
Stacey Weber and Stephanie Handal, sopranos
Robert Simpson and Dominick DiOrio, conductors
(click to purchase)
Live performance in the Yale Divinity School Marquand Chapel, April 2012. Brian Shircliffe, audio engineer.
Michael Barnes, marimba
Earl Rivers, conductor
Live performance in the Yale Divinity School Marquand Chapel, April 2012. Brian Shircliffe, audio engineer.
Live performance in the Yale Divinity School Marquand Chapel, April 2012. Brian Shircliffe, audio engineer.
Live performance in the Yale Divinity School Marquand Chapel, April 2012. Brian Shircliffe, audio engineer.
Conducting Houston Chamber Choir in a performance of A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass on tour at Yale's Marquand Chapel
April 2012
The Houston Chamber Choir premiered Dominick DiOrio's "A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass", a four-movement robust choral virtuosic showcase inspired by the imagist poetry of turn-of-the-century Nobel Laureate Amy Lowell. When he said that he had written for a professional choir who could do just about anything, he wasn't kidding."
Joel Luks, CultureMap
From "Musical Mayhem Blog": "The same was true of the Houston Chamber Choir directed by Robert Simpson They sang a quite difficult program with great skill and a very broad dynamic range. The focus of their program was Dominick DiOrio's kaleidoscopic "A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass" for SATB and marimba. Those of you looking for a fine choral piece with percussion by a rising young composer should definitely look at this piece."
From “The Tenor Diaries Blog”: “Robert Simpson led his professional chamber choir from Houston in an exciting performance, one that I sadly had to hear in the acoustically bereft Opera House. Of particular merit were the movements from Dominick DiOrio’s ‘A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass.’ Not only is this a very exciting work, I don’t think that these ears have ever heard a marimba played so amazingly. Stephen Tobin’s virtuosity was quite breathtaking.”
From “Music and the Sacred Blog”: “The late afternoon saw performances of the Houston Chamber Choir under the direction of Robert Simpson, an advocate for new music by Texas composers. The concert featured music about weather and included compositions by Parry and emerging conductor-composer Dominick DiOrio whose ‘A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass’ contained beautiful choral writing and a dynamic part for virtuoso marimba.”
I first encountered the work of poet Amy Lowell in a song cycle by the composer Zachary Wadsworth. Immediately taken by the vivid images and inherently musical nature of the text— to say nothing of Zach’s poignant and evocative musical setting—, I immersed myself in the writings of this turn-of-the-20th-century poet. I was ecstatic to find that Lowell held Milton in high regard and wrote with a transcendentalist bent reminiscent of Whitman— two artists for whom I have a great affinity. This cantata-concerto is the culmination of a love affair with her word, at once both youthfully vivacious and elegantly burnished.
The music makes virtuosic use of the marimba, hence the use of the term cantata-concerto. While always in service to the spirit and emotion evoked by the text, it requires a percussionist of professional caliber. The choral parts and the soprano solo also demand singers of the highest level—able to produce a stark pianissimo and a flexible and powerful fortissimo—all with exceptional tonal clarity and expressive declamation of the poetry. The Houston Chamber Choir is ideally suited to these challenges, and the work has been written with their particular agility, intelligence, and interpretational zeal in mind. This work is a gift to them and to their artistic director, Robert Simpson, in thanks for the opportunity to sing regularly with such a world-class ensemble of musicians.
© 2021 dominick diorio
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