“The music is all Montgomery, sensitive and powerful, and ingeniously using the instrumentation – strings and percussion – so that you can hear in the opening song My Lord, What a Morning the stars “begin to fall” and the strong strains of trumpets. In the the middle song, Lay dis Body Down, Montgomery, a former Catalyst Quartet violinist, shows her mastery of strings in an exquisite cello solo. The cycle coalesces in the prison song, My Father, How Long? with its brutal shock ending, and concludes with The Day of Judgment, a tour de force with the strings at one point slapping their hands against their instruments. Bullock sang with inspirational elegant restraint, ranging from soulful calls of praise to a deeply moving melisma, and the large audience both under the tent and on the spacious lawn responded enthusiastically. After its premiere at the festival, Montgomery’s new cycle is headed for performances by many co-commissioners from San Francisco to Virginia. With its spare instrumentation and its brilliant last song it could become a regular on the circuit.”