Kanon Pokajanen is a work of starkly radiant beauty, a deeply felt plea for forgiveness so resonant it seems to bear its own expiatory power. Over two years of intense quality time with the work, Part produced an 80-minute choral setting of the entire canon that mines each word of the original Church Slavonic for … Continue reading Arvo Pärt : Kanon Pokajanen – Tõnu Kaljuste, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Tag: sacred choral
Harry Christophers and The Sixteen : Palestrina
The music of Palestrina was described by Wagner as being timeless and spaceless, 'a spiritual revelation throughout'. With polyphony of utter purity, the Palestrina style has been a subject of study by composers for centuries. Long vocal lines flow in a continuous rhythm, imitative and with an original plainchant melodic motive for each phrase of … Continue reading Harry Christophers and The Sixteen : Palestrina
Bernat Vivancos : a search for a spirituality
The musical personality of Bernat Vivancos (Barcelona, 1973) is marked by the impressions received during his school years at the Monastery of Montserrat, by some reckonings the oldest existing music conservatory in the Western world. Singing, indispensable for all good musicians, has been of great importance in his career. Returning to Barcelona, Vivancos studied piano … Continue reading Bernat Vivancos : a search for a spirituality
Thomas Tallys : one of Englands’s greatest composers died #OnThisDay in 1585
Thomas Tallis (c. 1505 – 1585) was an English composer who occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music, and is considered one of England's greatest composers. No contemporary portrait of Tallis survives: that painted by Gerard Vandergucht (above), dates from 150 years after Tallis died, and there is no reason to suppose … Continue reading Thomas Tallys : one of Englands’s greatest composers died #OnThisDay in 1585
Happy Birthday, Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt (born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of classical and sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music is in part inspired by Gregorian chant. His earliest works, mostly for piano, are neo-classical in style. In 1962 his … Continue reading Happy Birthday, Arvo Pärt
Musica Kaleidoskopea 