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Reena Esmail
The Unexpected Early Hour

The Unexpected Early Hour

by Reena Esmail

3

Schools

3

Performances

—

Voicing

Moderate

Difficulty

About This Piece

The third movement of Reena Esmail's A Winter Breviary (2021), setting a text by poet Rebecca Gayle Howell that reflects on the canonical hour of Lauds and the quiet hours just before dawn at the winter solstice. The music is rooted in Hindustani Raag Ahir Bhairav, blending Indian classical idioms with Western choral writing. The movement is energetic and rhythmically driven, with the melody passing between voices.

Summary generated with AI.

a cappella
christmas
english
hindustani
sacred
solstice
winter
world music

Performances by School Year

School year
Performances
2025–26 2
2024–25 1

Often Programmed With

Pieces that appear on the same concert programs.

About this data

Rankings come from concert programs uploaded by choral directors. To protect privacy, a piece, composer or arranger is listed only after at least 3 different schools have performed it, and no schools, directors or students are ever named.

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