New York Polyphony Releases New Album 'Sky Of My Heart' On BIS Records

GRAMMY Award-nominated vocal ensemble New York Polyphony today releases its tenth commercial album, Sky of my Heart, on BIS Records. Now approaching its 20th anniversary season in 2025-2026, the ensemble revisits key works from its history in this album, incorporating New York Polyphony commissions and collaborations along with revered works from the Early Music repertoire.

Featuring guest performances by LeStrange Viols, the expansive recording encompasses selections from Renaissance composers William Byrd and Orlando Gibbons through 20th and 21st century works by Ivan Moody, John Tavener, Becky McGlade, Akemi Naito, Paul Moravec, Andrew Smith, and Nico Muhly.

Sky of my Heart takes its evocative title from the text of a poem by the influential Buddhist priest-poet Saigyō (1118–90), which is set to music by Naito on this album. The recording opens with Byrd's triumphant Ecce quam bonum (1591), selected in honor of the 400th anniversary of the composer's death. Drawn from Byrd's first book of Gradualia (1605), a volume of liturgical music intended for clandestine use by persecuted English Catholics, the work represents a universal call for “brethren to dwell in unity” – a message for troubled times that transcends both sacred intent and the era in which it was written.

For the album's second track, New York Polyphony performs Canticum Canticorum I (1985) by the late Father Ivan Moody, a priest, theologian, and composer who was a frequent collaborator with the ensemble before his passing in 2024. Originally composed for the esteemed English vocal quartet the Hilliard Ensemble, the three-movement work represents a musical triptych of texts from the biblical Song of Songs, expressed with both passion and timeless simplicity. Fittingly, Moody's work is followed by a piece by his mentor, Sir John Tavener. Tavener's The Lamb (1982), one of his most beloved works, offers a setting of William Blake's poem of the same name, from Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

In Becky McGlade's Of the Father's Love Begotten (2021), a New York Polyphony commission, the composer offers a setting of four verses from the well-known text based on a 19th-century translation of Corde natus ex parentis by the Latin poet Prudentius. Following that is Akemi Naito's Tsuki no Waka (2019), composed for New York Polyphony as a setting of the classical Japanese poetry (waka) by Saigyō.

Paul Moravec's The Last Invocation (2020) and Darest Thou Now, O Soul (2023) are two settings from Walt Whitman's collection of five poems Whispers of Heavenly Death, composed by Moravec during the pandemic lockdowns and gifted to New York Polyphony. Following these is the “Agnus Dei” movement from William Byrd's Mass for Four Voices, featuring LeStrange Viols alongside New York Polyphony in a piece that dovetails smoothly with the sense of peaceful departure captured in Whitman's verses.

Andrew Smith's Katarsis (2020), composed as a setting for the biblical Lamentations of Jeremiah and dedicated to the composer's father, has become a mainstay in live performances by New York Polyphony. It is followed by Nico Muhly's My Days (2012), a ritualized memory piece about Orlando Gibbons, combining text from Psalm 39 (which Gibbons himself set) with a written account of Gibbons' own autopsy – a poignant 17th-century semi-anonymous text. LeStrange Viols is featured on this piece as well as the album's next and final track: Orlando Gibbons' The Silver Swan (1612), a setting of a poem Gibbons may have written himself, which brings the recording to a quiet, poignant close.

Sky of my Heart Track Listing:

1. William Byrd (1540-1623) – Ecce quam bonum (1591) [3:31]

Ivan Moody (1964-2024) – Canticum Canticorum I (1985) [5:32]

     2. i. Surge propera amica mea

     3. ii. Descendi in hortum meum

     4. iii. Ego dilecto meo

5. John Tavener (1944-2013) – The Lamb (1982) [3:09]

6. Becky McGlade (b. 1974) – Of the Father's Love Begotten (2021) [5:34]

7. Akemi Naito (b. 1956) – Tsuki no Waka (2019) [5:50]

8. Paul Moravec (b. 1957) – The Last Invocation (2020) [3:03]

9. Paul Moravec – Darest Thou Now, O Soul (2023) [4:43]

10. William Byrd – Agnus Dei from Mass for Four Voices (1592-1593) [3:18]

11. Andrew Smith (b. 1970) – Katarsis (2024) [9:01]

12. Nico Muhly (b. 1981) – My Days (2012) [16:00]

13. Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) – The Silver Swan (Song 44) (1612) [1:39]

Total Time: 01:03:15

New York Polyphony

     Geoffrey Williams, countertenor

     Steven Caldicott Wilson, tenor

     Andrew Fuchs, tenor 

     Craig Phillips, bass

LeStrange Viols (Featured on tracks 10, 12, and 13) 

     John Mark Rozendaal

     Loren Ludwig

     Douglas Kelley

     Zoe Weiss

     Kivie Cahn-Lipman

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