Vocal Score of Carl Vine's Choal Symphony (1996) (Symphony No.6).
Published by Faber Music.

'I wanted this work to revel in the power of human community. There should be no soloists, and the text should relate to our basic need for religion without being overtly religious. To focus on this 'inner' humanity, I selected four hymns from religions long-dead, in languages that have not been spoken for thousands of years. Although there are only a handful of scholars in the world who could plumb the depth of both these languages, the sequence of phonemes, the rhythm and intent of the sounds, still resonate with our primal need to create order form chaos. Enuma Elish is a creation myth describing the creation of the world from primeval chaos. Although generally described as 'Sumerian' or 'Babylonian' and possibly originating before 2000 BC, this version of the myth is taken from a cuneiform tablet in Semitic Akkadian of Northern Babylonia, 1300-1250 BC. The remaining three texts are Eis Gên, Eis Selênên, and Eis Hêlion - hymns to the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun. These are taken from the Homeric Hymns (circa 400 BC), written in the centuries following Homer's death as introductions to public readings of his great epics. They were written in Greek 'Epic Dialect' and have been interpreted according to Revised Classical pronunciation. These four tracts combine to form a simple pantheon of the human condition: an account of creation followed by our relationship to the prime deities of the cosmos.'

~ Carl Vine