Publisher's Synopsis
The ecstatic collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere known as the aurora borealis is the subject of Northern Lights, commissioned in 2012 by the Choir of the West at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. Latvian folklore tells that the northern lights are the restless spirits of fallen warriors, still fighting their battles in the sky. Esenvalds combines a Latvian folksong, sung by a solo tenor, with less fearful, and factual, observations of the northern lights by two nineteenth-century Arctic explorers, Charles Francis Hall and Fridtjof Nansen. In a lilting triple-time meter throughout, with tuned glasses played by the singers adding an unearthly aura at salient points, the music is full of wonder, with an especially dramatic moment of revelation early on.
