The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians published a review of Dan Locklair’s Creator of the Stars of Night for SATB and Organ
“Locklair’s signature slowly-oscillating texture, used in many of his solo organ works, is grafted onto a rhythmically regular form of the plainsong Conditor alme siderum.
As the choir enters, the chant is chromatically altered into a brighter version outside the mode. At the melody’s caesura, Locklair includes the “missing” accidentals to restore the mode. This vacillation between the expected notes of the mode and jarring deviations from it is singularly beautiful. The organ accompaniment follows its own path for the most part with increasing fragments of the melody Picardy as counterpoint. Even without part divisions, the expansive texture and high tessituras suggest large choral forces. Long sustained lines and novel harmonic progressions make this languorous anthem somewhat difficult, yet it is an impressive addition to Advent repertoire.”
October 2014
Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians