Robert Kyr: The Cloud of Unknowing

Track Listing:

1. THE SINGER'S ODE (2012)

THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING (2013)

PART I: SONGS OF NIGHT

2. I. Unknowing
3. II. Fearing
4. III. Forgetting
5. IV. Longing

PART II. SONGS OF DAWN

6. I. Waiting
7. II. Thinking
8. III. Beseeching
9. IV. Piercing
10. V. Surrendering
11. VI. Enduring

SONGS OF THE SOUL (2011)

12. I. Descending: From the Abyss
13. II. Venturing: On a Dark Night
14. III. Hoping: Toward Dawn
15. IV. Transforming: Beloved into Lover
16. V. Arising: A Time for Song
17. VI. Uniting: Leaving My Cares
18. VII. Transcending: And Love Remains

Harmonia Mundi 807577 – 76'48"

Recorded June 2013 at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi Performing Arts Center, Corpus Christi, TX

Craig Hella Johnson leads Conspirare, soprano Estelí Gomez, baritone David Farwig, and the Victoria Bach Festival string orchestra in this first recording of three choral works by Robert Kyr (b. 1952). Exploring the relationship between human and divine love, his cantatas The Cloud of Unknowing (2013) and Songs of the Soul (2011) transfixed audiences and critics alike when Conspirare premiered them. – from Harmonia Mundi package notes

"A powerful new achievement in American music that vividly traces a journey from despair to transcendence." — The Wall Street Journal, concert review

Fanfare Magazine interview with Robert Kyr, January 2014 (pdf)