Description
Carson Cooman has written a moderately easy setting of the traditional Evensong canticles, designed to be effective even with a small choir. In the “Magnificat,” the melody soars over a rising ostinato figure. The “Nunc dimittis” (with a gently bouncing accompaniment) finds a sense of quiet, child-like joy in the vision of the aged Simeon seeing the infant Jesus.

Review
"Carson Cooman’s Prescott service, written on the occasion of Prescott Jun Burt-Chang’s birthday, offers choirs the opportunity to tightly unify the music of an Evensong Service. Both the canticles and the responses are modest in scope, among the shortest of settings of these texts. Yet typical of Cooman’s works, the pieces are replete with interesting ideas. Parts never divide throughout the service, and extended passages are in unison, particularly in the Magnificat. With modest ranges and straight forward homophonic writing, these moderately easy pieces would suit almost any choir. The organ part plays equal partner, contributing its own motivic ideas and development. The Magnificat, for instance, is built on a series of block chords rising by thirds, and this motif supplies much of the material throughout the responses as well. The Nunc dimittis begins with an animated repetitive figure in the organ accompaniment, creating a more active musical mood than is typical for settings of this text. The choral writing is much smoother and counterbalances the bounce of the accompaniment, forming an attractive tapestry of sound. The very simple Gloria Patri is common to both canticles, although Cooman alters the accompaniment in the closing cadence to provide more finality to the Nunc dimittis. This service is well worth considering for any choir, especially those less fluent with singing Evensong." --AAM Journal, January 2019