LOUISE TALMA'S CHRISTMAS CAROL

Discovered in 2009 at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University, Louise Talma's 1959 Christmas carol, playfully titled Chorus Angelorum, Piccolassima Fughetta, Motto Tonale Sopra un Tema, Torentoni Niventis Wilderi, is a fugal motet for three voices. Written for Thornton Wilder, Talma's collaborator on her opera The Alcestiad, the work is unusual in that it represents a completely tonal work by Talma during a period when she was working in her own distinct nonstrict serial idiom, and is the only fully tonal work she composed after being inspired to work in a serial style by Irving Fine's String Quartet of 1952. It is also a glimpse into Talma's psyche at the time when she was orchestrating The Alcestiad, and into her close friendship with Wilder.