The first recording of a new major work for Christmas by rapidly rising star composer, Thomas Hewitt Jones and writer Paul Williamson. Incarnation – A Suite of Songs for Christmas tells two interwoven stories. The first is the familiar tale of the Christmas journey from Advent to Epiphany. Embedded in that seasonal succession of events is another story, that of the large-scale narrative of the Bible, a synthesis of divine cosmology, history, legend and theology, that starts with the creation of the world and the fall of Adam and Eve. This slow-moving tale winds its way through the Old Testament towards Christ's birth in the stable in Bethlehem, finally reaching out to touch the present day and look ahead into the future.
The disc also features the first complete recording of A traditional Christmas – a three movement orchestral suite on well-known Christmas melodies. The disc ends with two carols – the latter a ‘bonus track’ especially written for this album.
Thomas Hewitt Jones is an award-winning composer of both concert and commercial music. Winner of the 2003 BBC Young Composer Competition, Thomas has since had numerous pieces performed, broadcast and published. Thomas' ballet, vocal and instrumental music, in particular, is highly acclaimed. He has also worked in Hollywood.
From 2010–12 Thomas composed and produced the music for the four animated Mascot Films for London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, narrated by Stephen Fry, with stories by Michael Morpurgo. 2012 also saw the premiere of The Same Flame, a thirty-five-minute choral work based on the Olympic values with lyrics by distinguished poet and broadcaster, Matt Harvey.
In December 2012 The Hallé Orchestra performed A Christmas Cracker at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester; the piece was then premiered in Canada and the USA, and played on Classic FM. Also in December 2012, Sloane Square Choral Society gave the world premiere performance of Incarnation – A Suite of Songs for Christmas (with lyrics by Paul Williamson), a modern approach to the Christmas story, commissioned by SSCS and The de Laszlo Foundation.
Thomas' most recent work includes Untamed Elegies (also with words by Paul Williamson), a choral work for Lincoln Cathedral, based on themes taken from the life of St Hugh of Lincoln. He has also written newly-commissioned Christmas carols for Tewkesbury Abbey, Royal College of Music, and Colet Court School. 2014 includes the premieres of two large-scale works: Panatheneia, commissioned by Hugo Ticciati for the festival O/Modernt in Sweden, and Coronation Meadows, seven songs reflecting on the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War for a massed choir of 200 children, commissioned by Arts for Rutland, the Curve Theatre (Leicester) and the British Army.
