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About the Composer
Jocelyn Hagen
Timothy C. Takach
Graphite Publishing
Rose Ever Blooming
Jocelyn Hagen, Timothy C. Takach
A NEW 55-minute Christmas oratorio featuring SATB choir, violin solo, and orchestra.
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Beatitudes
COMING SOON — This product will be available for purchase in January 2027.
If you’re interested in a regional US premiere, please contact us at info@graphitepublishing.com.
SATB choir, violin solo, and orchestra
Composers Jocelyn Hagen and Timothy C. Takach partnered with the VOCES8 Foundation Choir and Orchestra and violinist Jack Liebeck to create and record Rose Ever Blooming, a NEW 55-minute Christmas oratorio featuring SATB choir, violin solo, and orchestra. Rose Ever Blooming honors the role of Mary in the story of Jesus, highlighting the importance of family and the eternally strong bonds between mother and son. This thrilling collaborating is Hagen and Takach’s first full-length collaborative album. The oratorio will be premiered during VOCES8’s “LIVE From London” online Christmas festival in 2025, and will have in-person premiere performances in the U.K. and the U.S. See the kickstarter page that is making this project possible: Rose Ever Blooming: a new VOCES8 Foundation Christmas Album.
Composer’s Notes
Rose Ever Blooming honors the role of Mary in the story of Jesus, highlighting the importance of family and the eternally strong bonds between mother and son.
Inspired by Patricia Monaghan’s poetry, we have constructed a libretto featuring 12 of Monaghan’s poems and 3 traditional Christmas carol arrangements, which provide familiar musical touchstones while supporting the themes and narratives in Monaghan’s poetry.
We were drawn to this story because we are both parents. The everyday act of bringing life into the world is shared by millions, yet feels incredibly special and divine to each of us who do it. Patricia Monaghan’s poetry amplifies the responsibility and joy of parenthood. In her “Magnificat,” Mary takes power from within and shares that strength among all women and the miracle of birth.
Many moments of the Christmas story are highlighted in this piece. Each divine moment of the Christmas story is presented alongside a human counterpart. In Rose Ever Blooming, Mary’s story is presented as a reflection from the end of her life, beginning with the “Annunciation” and ending with her own list of “Beatitudes”—praising the ordinary and the everyday blessings we take for granted.
We see the onset of motherhood as a metamorphosis from an ordinary girl to one who will “bring forth the future.” A new “Magnificat” recognizes the divine within all of us. The resurrection of Jesus is foreshadowed beautifully through metaphor as the cutting of a tree in full bloom causes Mary to pause and cry over its loss, but wonder at the blooming of its flowers even after its death. It is refreshing to hear Mary’s story through her eyes, and Monaghan’s brilliant portrayal of her character shines through in these sensitive and poignant poems.
-Jocelyn Hagen & Timothy C. Takach
About the Performers
The VOCES8 Foundation Choir “warm and as ever pitch-perfect” (5★ BBC Music Magazine) is a group of professional chamber singers with a silky yet punchy sound, sublime blend and the precision and agility of its namesake, VOCES8. Its members are connected to the Foundation through VOCES8, Apollo5, Lyyra, its Scholars or the LIVE From London online concert series. Under Artistic Director and conductor Barnaby Smith’s guidance, the ensemble has performed both a cappella and orchestral repertoire by Bach, Byrd, Handel, Weelkes, Haydn, Mozart, Harris, Walton and Vaughan Williams, and recorded and filmed new commission premieres by Mårten Jansson, Christopher Tin, Paul Smith and Taylor Scott Davis. It has worked with the Philharmonia, the Academy of Ancient Music, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Foundation’s own Orchestra.
The VOCES8 Foundation Orchestra is made up of London’s finest orchestral players and a staggering line-up of chamber musicians and soloists who gather to support the charitable and educational ethos of the Foundation. Under Barnaby Smith’s direction, the orchestra’s sound is both mesmerically precise and lushly expansive.
The Foundation Choir and Orchestra’s first album release on VOCES8 Records was Mårten Jansson’s Requiem Novum with the Philharmonia. Their 2023 Decca Classics Christmas album, ‘A Choral Christmas’, featured the choir singing “sparkling, roof-raising arrangements of the classics that really impress” (5★BBC Music Magazine) and the world premiere recording of Taylor Scott Davis’s Magnificat, both of which were first premiered in LIVE From London. Last year the album ‘To Sing of Love’ was released, featuring To Sing of Love: a Triptych, a new concerto for violin, choir & orchestra written for Jack Liebeck and the VOCES8 Foundation Choir by Taylor Scott Davis, and new choral orchestrations of works by composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams (The Lark Ascending), Benjamin Britten (Rejoice in the Lamb) and Eric Whitacre (Sleep).
“Jack Liebeck’s violin commenced with the absolute lightest of touches, a whisper of chords that was as breathtaking as it was beautiful. It set the tone for his exemplary interpretation, as technically assured as it was expressive and emotive. It was easy to visualize [the piece] within Liebeck’s fine palette of musical colors” – ArtsHub
British/German violinist, director and festival director Jack Liebeck possesses “flawless technical mastery” and a “beguiling silvery tone” (BBC Music Magazine). Jack is the Royal Academy of Music’s first Émile Sauret Professor of Violin and Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Jack’s playing embraces the worlds of elegant chamber-chic Mozart through to the impassioned mastery required to frame Brett Dean’s The Lost Art of Letter Writing and he has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and chamber musicians. Jack’s fascination with all things scientific has led to two new concertos being written for him and regular collaborator Professor Brian Cox – Dario Marianelli’s Voyager Violin Concerto and Paul Dean’s A Brief History of Time commissioned by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in commemoration of Professor Stephen Hawking.
In summer 2024 Jack gave the world premiere of Taylor Scott Davis’ Effortlessly with VOCES8 on the main stage of Sydney Opera House. A new commission from Debbie Pritchard is in the works, and future album releases include Clive Osgood Stabat Mater on Convivium Records, the Wilson Violin Concerto recorded with Rory Macdonald and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for Linn Records and a London Choral Sinfonia recording of Malcolm Arnold Double Concerto with Alexander Sitkovesky.
Recent highlights also include a return to Queensland Symphony Orchestra performing a new arrangement of Lark Ascending, his debut with Spokane Symphony performing the US premiere of Marianelli Voyager and returns to Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Savannah Chamber Music Festival and the Franz Liszt Orchestra.
As the first Émile Sauret Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy of Music Jack works as an ambassador helping to recruit future talent both at home and internationally as well as nurturing the next generation of violinists in his class. Jack is also a member of the Salieca Piano Trio and directs his own ensemble of regular collaborators, ‘Jack Liebeck and Friends’.
Jack plays the ‘Ex-Wilhelmj’ J.B. Guadagnini dated 1785 and is generously loaned a Joseph Henry bow by Kathron Sturrock in the memory of her late husband Professor David Bennett.
Grammy-nominated, Barnaby Smith is Artistic Director of the internationally renowned vocal ensemble VOCES8, LIVE From London digital festivals, and the UK and US arms of The VOCES8 Foundation including its ensembles (Apollo5, Lyyra, The VOCES8 Foundation Choir), its Digital Academy and Milton Abbey International Festival and Summer School. Barnaby is in demand as a conductor, presenter, filmmaker, educator, countertenor and arranger.
Amongst a busy touring schedule with VOCES8 and ensembles around the world, recent projects have included Barnaby’s debuts conducting: Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Vaughan Williams and Tin which was awarded 5* by ArtsHub: “The Lost Birds conducted with abundant energy and great detail”; Nederlandse ReisOpera in Handel Messiah; Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem; the English Chamber Orchestra in Bach, Barber, Elgar and Faure; directing Jack Liebeck and VOCES8 in a new programme at a sold-out Sydney Opera House; directing and soloing in Bach Cantatas for Inon Barnatan’s La Jolla Summerfest; directing two solo-recordings Handel & Bach with the Illyria Consort, of which Gramophone notes that there is “no denying the refined beauty and sheer skill of Smith’s performance” as well as producing and presenting the LIVE From London Festival. With VOCES8 collaborations with Eric Whitacre and Paul Simon resulted in two new albums – Home (reaching No.1 in the Classical Album chart and awarded a BBC Music Magazine Choral and Song Choice) and Seven Psalms (which garnered wide- ranging 5-star reviews and high praise from Rolling Stone magazine).
Text
All poetry by Patricia Monaghan except where noted.
2. The Beginning of the Story
It is not that I cannot say what happened.
It is not that words diminish it.
It is not that I would be misunderstood.
At the furthest reaches of beauty the senses
lose their memory. The eye cannot hold
the light. The music slides away.
When I try to say what I saw
words do not fail: memory fails,
vision fails, the senses fail.
When I try to say what I know, I say
things completely other. Now a story
exists, and it is not what occurred.
What I saw was not beautiful. It was beauty.
What I heard was not true. It was truth.
What I am saying now is less than what I know.
3. Annunciation: With a Sound Like Wings
To you it seems a foregone
conclusion, the obvious outcome,
the only possible answer.
Who could say no to an angel?
But there was a moment when I
hesitated. I remember a wild desire
to be left alone, to be obscure again
and safe–I wanted the angel to leave,
to find some other girl for his strange
Invitation.
And yet: I answered.
I leaned towards the angel
and, with a sound like wings,
the future was born in me.
4. Gabriel’s Message
The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
With wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame.
“All hail,” said he, “O lowly maiden Mary,
Most highly favored lady.” Gloria!
“How blest among all women you shall be,
All generations laud and honor thee.
Your Son shall be Emmanuel, by seers foretold,
Most highly favored lady.” Gloria!
Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head.
“To me be as it pleases God,” she said.
“My soul shall laud and magnify God’s holy name.”
Most highly favored lady. Gloria!
Of her, Emmanuel, the Christ, was born
In Bethlehem, all on a Christmas morn.
And Christian folk throughout the world will ever say:
“Most highly favored lady.” Gloria!
Sabine Baring-Gould
5. And Then it Was Over
And then it was over, and I was changed, and the world was changed…
There was nothing in my face or in my body that looked different from a few moments before, I was
still an ordinary young woman, you would never have known I had agreed to bring forth the future–even though I was changed utterly–there was no roar about me, no halo over me.
Nothing had changed. Everything had changed.
A breeze brushed my skin. It felt like wings.
6. Miracles
The most extraordinary
things happen:
We have enough to eat.
We have a home.
We hold each other in
the warm nights.
The baby is healthy
and smiles like stars.
We are all alive.
We have fresh eggs,
hardy parsley,
milk, and flowers.
I sit spinning and
watch him play.
He watches clouds
through the window,
pointing to the sky.
He giggles and gurgles.
I put my spindle
down, caught by his
miraculous smile.
7. A Traveler Tells Us the News
Last night we saw a traveler.
Even at a distance, we knew
he was from home: his clothing,
the songs he sang as he walked.
Last night the weary traveler stayed
at our fire, ate our meal with us,
refreshed us with the laughter
of our tongue, then told us the news.
Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child,
Bye bye, lully, lullay.
Lully, lullay, thou little tiny child,
Bye bye, lully, lullay.
O sisters too, how may we do
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we sing,
“Bye bye, lully, lullay”?
– Anonymous
Sleep softly, child, in tender grace,
Mother will keep You near.
Though shadows fall and veil the way,
My heart will hold You dear.
– Timothy C. Takach
For the first time I left my child
and walked out to the desert night.
I walked for hours, bruising my feet
on the hidden stones. I lay on a hill
beneath a dead tree. The sand was
still warm from the day. I saw light
puncture the sky like knife-tears in flesh.
For the first time, I hated the angel.
8. Life After Angels
In stories, angels are important,
and massacres, and near escapes.
But life is not a story. Life is one
unremarkable day after another:
it is spring, I have filled
the house with flowers, breezes
cool our bodies every night
and our son smiles and smiles.
9. Resurrection
Someone cut down our
almond tree. It is spring.
The tree was in full bud.
It stood in an open field, in no
one’s way. Needless death.
I could not stop weeping.
A week later the buds
opened into sprays of white
and for a moment I thought
that bees would come and
fertilize these flowers
and there might yet be fruit
this year–what folly, to
imagine immortality–flowers
are resurrection enough.
10. Magnificat
Ark of the Covenant, Cause of Our Joy,
Dispenser of Grace, Eastern Gate,
Flower of Carmel, Health of the Sick,
House of Gold, Immaculate Mother,
Lady of Sorrows, Mirror of Justice,
Morning Star, Mystical Rose,
Queen of Peace, Refuge of Sinners,
Rose Ever Blooming, Seat of Wisdom,
Star of the Sea, Tower of Ivory,
Woman Clothed With the Sun.
I am all of that and more.
I am none of that and less.
I am as you are: a woman who
lived and loved and suffered.
I am earth, I am stars,
I incarnate god.
11. Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming
Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming
From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming,
As men of old have sung.
It came, a flow’ret bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.
Isaiah ’twas foretold it,
The Rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it,
The virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright,
She bore to men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.
This Flow’r, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness everywhere.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us,
And lightens every load.
-vs. 1–2 trans. by Theodore Baker, vs. 3 Friedrich Layritz, trans. by Harriet R. Krauth
12. I Said Yes to Hope
I knew the world. I knew the poor, for I had been poor; I knew the pain of women, for I was one; I suffered for the criminal and outcast, like my son, like my son.
There was no reason for song, no reason for hope. But if we wait for reasons, we will be forever silent, forever hopeless.
I once said yes to an angel. So I said yes to hope, yes with all of my weakly beating heart.
And with my yes, the world changed. And with my yes, the world changed.
Or was it me who changed? I passed into the embrace of those I loved,
and love grew and grew until I embraced all life.
From this heaven, from this dream, from wherever I am now, I embrace you now and tell you:
Sing. Dance. Hope. Dream. Love.
It might change the world; it might not. But the world will not change unless you do.
13. Beatitudes
Blessed is the air that breathes us, that we breathe.
Blessed is water that fills and drowns and quenches.
Blessed is earth that sustains and upholds.
Blessed are mountains, beautiful and treacherous.
Blessed are oceans, roads and barriers.
Blessed are islands, distant and contained.
Blessed are trees that shade and feed.
Blessed are fruits, nuts, stalks and roots.
Blessed are birds and beasts and snakes.
Blessed: butterflies, spiders, ants and bees.
Blessed is blood. Blessed is the heart.
Blessed are eyes, mouth, ears, hair,
nose, breasts, bellies, legs and feet.
Blessed are all things and all people.
Blessed are sun, moon, stars and rain.
Blessed am I, who lives in blessing.
Blessed are you, child of sun and rain,
embraced by and embracing this world.
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