The Little Match Girl Passion by David Lang

Did you know that David Lang won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his The Little Match Girl Passion? (Here's an iTunes link: Lang: the Little Match Girl Passion if you prefer to listen to samples there instead of Amazon.)

Co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall especially for Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices, David Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Setting Hans Christian Andersen's fable in the format of Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Lang elevates the suffering of the little match girl with poignant, evocative music. Lang's piece is scored for four voices and a few percussion instruments, played by the singers. They sing the sad story of a little girl who freezes to death selling matches on the street during a cold winter's night. In notes Lang wrote to accompany the Carnegie Hall premiere last October, he says he was drawn to Andersen's story because of how opposite aspects of the plot played off each other. 'The girl's bitter present is locked together with the sweetness of her past memories, ' Lang says. 'Her poverty is always suffused with her hopefulness. There's a kind of naive equilibrium between suffering and hope.'

Here are some links to reviews and articles about the composition for your further enlightenment:

David Lang Wins Music Pulitzer

David Lang - The Little Match Girl Passion

Carnegie Hall: The Little Match Girl Passion David Lang

Sounds Heard: David Lang's the little match girl passion

With the cold weather and holidays fast approaching, this sounds like a wonderful addition to a holiday music collection since this is one fairy tale that is very much associated with the winter season.