King’s Ely Chamber Choir sing ‘There is no Rose’ by Lucy Walker - Ely Cathedral, December 15th 2023

Lucy Walker is a Visiting Music Teacher at King’s Ely and she is Composer-in-Residence at St Martin's Voices, who are one of the UK’s most versatile professional vocal ensembles.
Lucy composed ‘There is no Rose’ in August 2021. She submitted it to an open call for scores by BBC Singers and it was first performed in the December of that same year.
Lucy said: “I wanted to create a thoughtful and uplifting setting of the ancient words. This carol comes with a great legacy of musical settings - by Joubert, Cecilia McDowall and many others - so I thought carefully about what I could add. Though the melody repeats in each verse, as one would expect in a traditional carol, it is harmonised and voiced differently to give a sense of narrative growth."
“I wanted this piece to feel like the telling a story! For example, the first verse is a soprano solo accompanied by the choir, to create a delicate and intimate atmosphere. My favourite part is the celestial imagery of ‘For in this rose contained was heaven and earth in little space’, where the melody grows from a tiny lower voices duet into a blossoming soprano line. I always tried to maintain a sense of natural fluidity."
“The text also features Latin refrains, which provide a warm chromatic inflection in this setting. Each refrain builds in intensity until the final joyful Alleluia.”
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