Woman With The Alabaster Box [CF:UE031127]

The Woman With the Alabaster Box and Tribute to Caesar were both commissioned for the 350th anniversary of the Karlstad Diocese in Sweden in 1997. Both are settings of texts from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, and, although they stand as separate compositions, the two works do have many musical traits in common. Not the least of these is the contrasting use of chordal passages and mostly stepwise melodic declamation, both familiar elements in Part's music, but combined here with a new fluidity of texture and a more idiomatic moulding of choral sonorities. (Paul Hillier)