Lux: The Dawn From On High

The Central Coast Philharmonia will sing this work, supported by the Central Coast Youth Orchestra. Supporting the Philharmonia and presenting other works on the night will be the Central Coast Children's and Youth Choir; local choral ensemble Ebb & Flow; and our 2022 scholarship winner, Mia Cross.

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. Blackwall Road, Woy Woy NSW 2256

LUX: The Dawn From On High is Dan Forrest's third major work for chorus and orchestra, (after Requiem For the Living and Jubilate Deo). This five-movement work explores various facets of LUX (Latin for “light”), in texts ranging from ancient liturgical chant to Scripture to modern secular love poetry. The music of LUX, written in 2018, was inspired thematically and spiritually by these profound texts; visually by the light in the Reims Cathedral in France and at the Poulnabrone Dolmen in Ireland; and musically by a variety of musical sources from ancient chant to modern minimalist composers.

The title invokes the dual meaning of the text of the first movement, where the light of dawn gradually ascends into the sky, yet the Light of the world descends from the sky- a “Dawn from on High”. As a whole, the five movements trace a symmetrical journey through time- from ancient prophecy, to today (“even after all this time”), and then back again; or from another perspective, from a day's dawn, through the sun's high point in the sky, and then to the setting of the sun on the horizon at the end of day.