I've talked in previous postings how important singing in a choir is to me. There is very little I get more satisfaction from than singing with a group of committed choral singers. And to scratch that continual itch for that last 20 years, I have sung in a 36-voice volunteer church choir. Every Sunday from September through June, the choir provides one or two anthems in the church service, as well as "incidental music" for the service. Once or twice a year, though, the choir performs a larger mass, or cantata as the focus of the church service. Yesterday we performed Lux Aeterna by Morten Lauridsen (pictured right, receiveing a 2007 National Medal of the Arts).
While it's not unheard of for my choir to sing music of a living composer, I don't believe we have sung a larger work by one. The usual dead, white men music we have sung are masses, or requiems, or cantatas of Haydn, Britten, Handel, Debussy, Faure, Durufle, Vivaldi, Bach and others. I have nothing against singing this music, in fact I love it; but discovering the music of Mr. Lauridsen has show me how current good choral music can be. I should say that my choir has sung cantatas of Conrad Susa and a Latino composer whose name I can't recall, Rodriguez maybe, and they could still be living, I'm not certain. Oh wait, I just remembered we sang a collection of arrangements of Christmas carols by a former pastor of our church; he's still living, but I won't count that piece for many reasons.
Mr. Lauridsen's compositions definitely have a certain sound to them. I don't know enough about music to define that sound, but there is a lushness with the use of 7ths, 9th and 2nds in many of the chords. The music can be very satisfying to sing, and really rewards the choral singer who knows how to sing "on top" of the voice and can listen across their own and the other voice sections. Rarely is the bass part the "shimmer note" of the chord, but when that did happen I wanted to hear how my part conflicted with its neighbor, rather than just bombast my way through the texture, as is my initial reaction to needing to find my note in a thick chord.
I can take a little pride that I was the one who introduced the music of Lauridsen to my choir. A couple of years ago I purchased Lauridsen's anthem O Magnum Mysterium as a gift to the choir. I've been pleased to heard my choir-mates reactions to singing that piece--so much so that two other choir members purchased the Lux Aeterna scores for this performances. You're welcome. No, really, I mean thank you. I've gotten so much more out of being a member of my choir for 20 year than I could ever give back.
Lux Aeterna
Music by Morten Lauridsen
Lyrics adapted from the Latin mass (although with some text that I have never sung in a mass before, and I swear is more Pig Latin than Latin)
Written in 1997
While it's not unheard of for my choir to sing music of a living composer, I don't believe we have sung a larger work by one. The usual dead, white men music we have sung are masses, or requiems, or cantatas of Haydn, Britten, Handel, Debussy, Faure, Durufle, Vivaldi, Bach and others. I have nothing against singing this music, in fact I love it; but discovering the music of Mr. Lauridsen has show me how current good choral music can be. I should say that my choir has sung cantatas of Conrad Susa and a Latino composer whose name I can't recall, Rodriguez maybe, and they could still be living, I'm not certain. Oh wait, I just remembered we sang a collection of arrangements of Christmas carols by a former pastor of our church; he's still living, but I won't count that piece for many reasons.
Mr. Lauridsen's compositions definitely have a certain sound to them. I don't know enough about music to define that sound, but there is a lushness with the use of 7ths, 9th and 2nds in many of the chords. The music can be very satisfying to sing, and really rewards the choral singer who knows how to sing "on top" of the voice and can listen across their own and the other voice sections. Rarely is the bass part the "shimmer note" of the chord, but when that did happen I wanted to hear how my part conflicted with its neighbor, rather than just bombast my way through the texture, as is my initial reaction to needing to find my note in a thick chord.
I can take a little pride that I was the one who introduced the music of Lauridsen to my choir. A couple of years ago I purchased Lauridsen's anthem O Magnum Mysterium as a gift to the choir. I've been pleased to heard my choir-mates reactions to singing that piece--so much so that two other choir members purchased the Lux Aeterna scores for this performances. You're welcome. No, really, I mean thank you. I've gotten so much more out of being a member of my choir for 20 year than I could ever give back.
Lux Aeterna
Music by Morten Lauridsen
Lyrics adapted from the Latin mass (although with some text that I have never sung in a mass before, and I swear is more Pig Latin than Latin)
Written in 1997
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