Review
"This traditional text, so frequently a part of Advent and Christmas carol services, has many settings, but a good new one is always welcome. Like the Palestrina/Willcocks setting, and so many others that follow its model, White employs reciting-note speech rhythms at several points, and begins the piece with cantors (the first one an unspecified voice-type, followed by an alto; a soprano takes over in a later passage); the choir enters fittingly at 'Tell us, art thou he?' The various textual repetitions receive distinct musical settings, most notably at the reprise of the opening lines, here rendered chorally rather than by cantors. If you feel it’s time to give the Willcocks setting a rest, this is a fine alternative, which will seem at once familiar and new to your singers." --AAM Journal, September 2011

"The text here is the familiar 'I look from afar,' in a setting created for the stunning Palmer Choir in 2008. The familiar Palestrina-Willcocks setting surely provided a model: like that piece, this one contrasts a cantor, solo voices, and semichoirs with choral sections, some of it in harmonized chant-style declamation, and some incorporating chant-like lines. This would make a strong--and fairly easy--alternative to the Palestrina setting." AAM Journal, October 2010

Text
I look from afar:
and lo, I see the pow'r of God coming,
and a cloud cov'ring the whole earth.
Go ye out to meet him and say:
Tell us, art thou he that should come to reign
over thy people Israel? High and low,
rich and poor, one with another.
Go ye out to meet him and say:
Hear, O thou Shepherd of Israel,
thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep.
Tell us, are thou he that should come?
Stir up thy strength, O Lord,
and come to reign over thy people Israel.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
--First Responsory of Advent Sunday