Lux Aeterna
Oct 16, 2011 - 7:00 PM
From Here to Eternity
by Thomas MayConsider it a measure of the vibrant health of today’s choral scene that the Master Chorale has chosen to open its 48th concert season with a program devoted entirely to the work of living composers. One of these — Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna, the source for the program’s overall title — has in fact already achieved the status of a contemporary classic since the ensemble gave its world premiere only 14 years ago. Each of these composers has found distinctive ways to engage the richly colorful resources of choral writing. These span a wide spectrum, from deep-rooted traditions that reach back to Gregorian chant to Renaissance technique and the vitality of folk music, as well as modernist explorations of texture and timbre.
Even more, all of the pieces we will hear point to the underlying and universal spiritual yearning that choral music is so naturally suited to express. An earlier working title for the program, remarks Music Director Grant Gershon, was “From Here to Eternity.” The a cappella works on the first half might be thought of as a kind of prologue and counterpart “to launch us into this larger idea of eternity and the hereafter” while keeping us grounded in varied references to our earthly experience.
A very specific sense of place in the here and now inspired Music for a Big Church; for tranquility (1990). Thomas Jennefelt, born in Huddinge, Sweden in 1954, thought deeply about the role played by St. Johannes Church in contemporary urban life when he was commissioned to write this piece for its centennial. The composer points out that St. Johannes “is located in the very center of Stockholm, not far from the business district (with stressed clerks) and also a part of Stockholm [known for] drug-dealing and prostitution. The central location of the church has given it a new role: a place where you could find tranquility and gather strength whatever confession you have. I believe that is the modern role of many churches around the world.” Jennefelt represents a European take on minimalist style and sustains an enthralling meditation that is literally beyond speech, setting wordless syllables. Yet nothing is predictable in the sequence of patterns he weaves from the choral textures: patterns that oscillate and shimmer like light are underpinned by the bell-like tolling of the basses, while shadows gradually spread and fade.
Her Sacred Spirit Soars (2002) adapts the age-old musical metaphor of the rising scale to give enchanting shape to the theme of artistic inspiration, which enables us to soar above the “gilded spires” of our proud cities and everyday lives. Originally from Reno, Nevada, Eric Whitacre has become one of today’s most frequently performed choral composers despite being a late-comer to classical music. This modern madrigal for double chorus (five parts each) was commissioned by the Heartland Festival in Platteville, Wisconsin, as an homage to its Shakespearean productions. Whitacre sets a sonnet by poet Charles Anthony Silvestri written to imitate Elizabethan style, in which the first letter of each line acrostically spells out the phrase “Hail Fair Oriana” — an epithet for Queen Elizabeth I, to whom poets in Shakespeare’s era often paid tribute as a muse-like figure.
Just before the premiere of his new opera Heart of Darkness in November in his native London, Tarik O’Regan has developed a reputation for luminous choral writing as well. He locates the spiritual resonance of Tal vez tenemos tiempo, a secular poem by Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda (1904-73) which O’Regan set to music in 2007 on a commission from the Texas-based choral ensemble Conspirare. Rendered “Maybe we have time” in Alastair Reid’s English translation, the Spanish poem prompted O’Regan to treat the chorus in a predominantly homophonic style so as “to allow Neruda’s language a lot of breathing space.” Haunting dissonances and the longing tug of the tritone flavor his sensitive setting. “There is something so universally spiritual in the linguistic rhythm of the poem,” writes the composer, “that I wanted to amplify this facet in the clearest way. There are almost no overlapping, or densely ‘orchestrated’ sections in this work. The choir moves as one for much of the piece, echoing Neruda’s call for unity in carving out the time, as an individual or wider society, to ‘simply be’.”
A clear highlight of the Chorale’s “Americana” program in 2010 was the premiere of Heavenly Home. As a member of the ensemble’s tenor section for the past decade, Shawn Kirchner brings a faultless grasp of choral singing to his triptych of arrangements of authentic American folk sources. The idea sprang up after he attended his first Sacred Harp Convention in 1999 and found himself amazed “that one could receive such spiritual refreshment from singing archaic hymns about heaven and hell.” The three numbers he has chosen for the set (which also include similar repertory from 19th-century song) create a wonderful internal rhythm balancing reflection and exuberance.
“Unclouded Day,” a gospel favorite by the traveling preacher J.K. Alwood, mixes “Dolly Parton” inflected harmonies for the women with a “bluegrass fugue” in the third verse, while “Angel Band” stirred Kirchner to devise an accompanying melody of his own to weave in with the original song, a rare example of music that “articulate[s] the actual moments of ‘crossing over’.” His arrangement of “Hallelujah,” one of the most celebrated of Sacred Harp songs, contrasts the energetic, raw harmonies of the original setting as they are heard in the chorus with a more elaborate, polyphonic treatment for the verses. Singing this repertory, says Kirchner, resembles “spending time in a cemetery on a beautiful day — reminding yourself of where you’ve come from (dust) and where you’re ultimately going (to dust), but with the hope of heaven all around you, like the sun shining down.”
In his survey of choral music in the 20th century, Nick Strimple provocatively describes Morten Lauridsen as “the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic — with the possible exception of Alan Hovhaness” (who, curiously enough, also had strong ties to the Pacific Northwest, settling in Seattle during his final decades). Lauridsen’s evolution as a composer is intimately connected with his long association with the Master Chorale, a partnership that began in 1985. One result is the work considered by many to be his masterpiece, Lux Aeterna (“Eternal Light”), which he created during his first several years as composer-in-residence. Lauridsen dedicated it to the Chorale and then-Music Director Paul Salamunovich, who led the world premiere in April 1997 and later recorded it with the ensemble on a Grammy®- nominated release.
Two years after the premiere, the Chorale paired Lux Aeterna with Brahms’s A German Requiem in a program that made explicit some intriguing parallels between the two works. Lauridsen emulates the eclectic approach of Brahms in assembling his own sequence of texts into a coherent cycle (see sidebar). The model of the Christian Requiem frames the work, into which (like Brahms) Lauridsen incorporated feelings triggered by the recent loss of his mother. As in Brahms, there is no place for the angst-ridden visions of the Dies Irae. Yet even the earth-centered cycle of bereavement and consolation to which Brahms gives voice yields to the reassuring imagery of light. This imagery occurs in varied form in each of Lux Aeterna’s five interlinked movements and provides the spiritual focus for what the composer describes as “an intimate work of quiet serenity centered around a universal symbol of hope, reassurance, goodness, and illumination at all levels.”
What is perceived as the “mystical” quality of Lauridsen’s music is rooted in tangible technical choices that show his command of a complex tapestry of music history. A fundamental impulse behind the score is the timeless, melodic flow of Gregorian chant (though he never literally quotes chant as such). Gershon aptly notes that Lauridsen’s unique sound world presents “a surface warmth and sheer beauty” that often conceals “an extremely sophisticated and meticulously crafted structural integrity.”
It’s not necessary, for example, to be aware of the intricacies of particular compositional procedures employed here to encounter a breathtaking sense of architectural reassurance: listening to Lux Aeterna is similar to exploring a grand cathedral interior. With the reprise of the opening material from the Introitus after the Agnus Dei in the last movement, Lauridsen completes a deeply satisfying arch. A final Alleluia brings the light into sustained focus, synthesizing other ideas heard earlier and coming to rest much as the music began — with resounding serenity.
SIDEBAR:
What to listen for in Lux Aeterna
Lauridsen’s cantata, which exists in versions accompanied either by orchestra or (as we hear tonight) by organ, clearly alludes to the traditional Catholic Requiem Mass in its title and in the texts of the first and last of its five movements. The Introitus is what would normally be expected to begin the musical setting of such a liturgy and, fittingly, lays out the main thematic ideas with which Lauridsen builds the entire cycle, echoing archaic modes and, as he writes, “reflecting the purity and directness of Renaissance sacred music vocabulary.” A specific Renaissance device is the four-part canon on “et lux perpetua” as a form of “word painting.”
The most overtly complex writing occurs in In Te, Domine, Speravi, which interpolates a reference to light from the Beatus Vir into excerpts from the Te Deum, an early Christian hymn. Josquin’s masses are a model for the use of paired voices, while the words “fiat misericordia” are set as a two-part mirror canon to suggest “the idea of self-reflection as well as a dialogue between Man and Creator.” The organ meanwhile traces a cantus firmus based on an old Nuremberg songbook.
Lauridsen describes movements three and four as a complementary pair. O Nata Lux, at the work’s center, contains especially mystical light imagery derived from the Gospel of John (in turn alluding to the Genesis account of light’s central role in creation). Musically, Lauridsen emphasizes this significance by making this the single a cappella movement, alluding to the tradition of sacred unaccompanied motets. Its intimate, inward focus is in sharp contrast to the worldly sound of the medieval Pentecost sequence Veni, Sancte Spiritus. The images of refreshment and joy burst forth in a dance-like rondo tune repeated several times.
The Agnus Dei (the single longest section) appears in its altered wording as in the Requiem Mass and reworks a motif that was originally introduced in the Introitus (to the words “Te decet hymnus”). After the return of the principal melody from the opening movement in “lux aeterna luceat eis” (from the Communion of the Requiem), the Agnus Dei music serves as the basis for the concluding Alleluia, leading to a quiet close on “Amen.”
| Title | Composers/Arranger | Guest Artists |
|---|---|---|
| Music for a Big Church; for tranquility | Thomas Jennefelt | |
| Her Sacred Spirit Soars | Eric Whitacre | |
| Tal vez tenemos tiempo | Maybe we have time | Tarik O'Regan | Lesley Leighton, Conductor, Soprano |
| Heavenly Home: Three American Songs | Shawn Kirchner | |
| 1. Unclouded Day | Shawn Kirchner | |
| 2. Angel Band | Shawn Kirchner | |
| 3. Hallelujah | Shawn Kirchner | |
| Lux Aeterna | Morten Lauridsen | |
| 1. Introitus | Morten Lauridsen | |
| 2. In Te, Domine Speravi | Morten Lauridsen | |
| 3. O Nata Lux | Morten Lauridsen | |
| 4. Veni, Sancte Spiritus | Morten Lauridsen | |
| 5. Agnus Dei - Lux Aeterna | Morten Lauridsen |
Archival Recording
| Date | Review | Media | Reviewer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 17, 2011 |
Anticipation hung heavily on the air as the opening night concert of season 2011-2012 approached. One could easily sense a spirit of joy and happiness when entering the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The long summer gap between last Spring's finale and tonight's reunion of choir ... Read More Anticipation hung heavily on the air as the opening night concert of season 2011-2012 approached. One could easily sense a spirit of joy and happiness when entering the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The long summer gap between last Spring's finale and tonight's reunion of choir and fans is second only to that of a college football fan's long wait from January until September, and in both, the long void requires satisfaction. And thus, the Los Angeles Master Chorale opened its 48th season, its 11th under the direction of Maestro Grant Gershon, with an "almost a cappella" performance with all hands on stage before a nearly sold-out house. |
Classical Voice | Douglas Neslund |
| Oct 17, 2011 |
One of the happiest phenomena of our musical times is the renaissance in choral music. Some of the most interesting new classical works are being written for choirs, and the audience grows. It may be that choirs allow for a solid marriage between the conceptual complexity of modern composit... Read More One of the happiest phenomena of our musical times is the renaissance in choral music. Some of the most interesting new classical works are being written for choirs, and the audience grows. It may be that choirs allow for a solid marriage between the conceptual complexity of modern composition and the inherently accessible nature of the human voice; or it may be that the choral work in film has brought with it a new generation of composers and listeners. |
L.A. Opening Nights | Marc Porter Zasada |
| Oct 17, 2011 |
Grant Gershon, music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, LOVES program titles. When he designed last night’s concert — the opening event in the ensemble’s 48th season — he originally called it “From Here to Eternity.” Other marketin...
Read More
Grant Gershon, music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, LOVES program titles. When he designed last night’s concert — the opening event in the ensemble’s 48th season — he originally called it “From Here to Eternity.” Other marketing mavens intervened, however, and the title ended up as “Lux Aeterna,” in honor of Morten Lauridsen’s famous choral work that concluded the program at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Smart move; the house was packed last night, which isn’t a surprise. Since the Master Chorale commissioned the work from Lauridsen in 1997, no other piece has more defined the ensemble. And it’s not just the Master Chorale that loves it. Since it was premiered and then recorded by the ensemble and its former music director, Paul Salumunovich, Lux Aeterna has become one of the most popular choral pieces written in recent years. In last night’s preconcert “Listen Up!” program, KUSC radio host Alan Chapman remarked that whenever Lux Aeterna is played during one of his station’s innumerable pledge drives, phones ring off the hook with donations. However, the piece performed last night was quite a ways removed from the orchestral version that most people know. Gershon chose instead to accompany the 30-minute work with Paul Meier (associate organist at St. James Episcopal Church on Wilshire Blvd.) playing the 6,100-pipe Disney Hall organ. (Lauridsen — obviously a canny businessman — wrote both versions of Lux Aeterna simultaneously, knowing that far more choruses and church choirs would be able to perform it with an organ accompanying instead of hiring an orchestra). Thus, last night’s Lux Aeterna had quite a different sound and feel to it, but that wasn’t all due to Meier. Gershon himself put his own distinctive stamp on last night’s performance, as well. The 115-member Chorale was much more expressive and subtle than on the recording, employing impeccable diction and bringing great feeling to the Latin texts in the five connected movements, including its most famous section, O Nata Lux. I wasn’t totally sold on all of Meier’s registrations and the balance between choir and organ wasn’t always perfect but the opening notes, beginning with a single note from one of Frank Gehry’s 32-foot wooden organ pipes, and the transition from O Nata Lux to Veni, Sancte Spiritus were particularly effective. The audience was mesmerized; there were at least 10 seconds of silence after the final Amen before the hall erupted in a standing ovation for Gershon, the Chorale and, in particular, Lauridsen, who was in the audience. The opening half of the program consisted of totally a cappella works, all written by still-living composers. The earliest work on the program dated from 1990: the U.S. premiere of Music for a big church; for tranquility by Swedish composer Thomas Jennefelt, a 10-minute vocalize exercise with the male voices setting a polyphonic chordal foundation while the women swirled above and below them. The rest of the first-half pieces were notable for, among other things, the composers’ ability to fit their music expertly to poetic texts, beginning with Eric Whitacre’s 2002 anthem, Her Sacred Spirit Soars, which employs rising scales from a 10-part double chorus to accentuate a text by Charles Anthony Silvestri. The Chorale’s fortissimo ending raised the proverbial Disney Hall roof. English composer Tarik O’Regan (whose first opera, Heart of Darkness, will be premiered next month at Royal Opera, Covent Garden, in London) used mostly homophonic writing that allowed the Chorale to declaim grim words by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda with great feeling. Leslie Leighton, the Chorale’s associate conductor, conducted but the Chorale couldn’t quite achieve the precision it demonstrated under Gershon in the rest of the program. The upbeat strains of Heavenly Home, a “bluegrass triptych” of 19th century American folk hymns arranged by chorus member Shawn Kirchner, concluded the opening half. Premiered by the Chorale last year, the three arrangements proved to be a perfect antidote to Neruda’s tragic depiction of a battle, even if Kirchner’s subject matter did deal with the trip from this life to the next. As far as Kirchner and the text writers are concerned, the trip (and its destination) will be joyous. Jaunty arrangements of Unclouded Day and Hallelujah bracketed the winsome Angel Band, in which Kirchner gave his fellow tenors soaring melodic lines in the middle verse. ___________ Hemidemisemiquavers: • Among the more interesting tidbits from the preconcert lecture was the revelation that Lauridsen (who has been a professor at the USC Thornton School of Music for more than 30 years) reads poetry every day and begins every class with a poem. • Photo caption: Grant Gershon conducted the Los Angeles Master Chorale last night in Walt Disney Concert Hall, the opening concert of the Chorale's 48th season. Photo credit: Alex Berliner for Los Angeles Master Chorale.Photo credit: Alex Berliner for Los Angeles Master Chorale Read Less |
Class Act | Robert D. Thomas |
| Oct 17, 2011 |
Hearing a choir blend beautifully together in song is one of those mysterious things that seem to raise human emotion to the point of tears. The Los Angeles Master Chorale, under the direction of its music director, Grant Gershon, opened the chorale's 48th season Sunday night at Wal... Read More Hearing a choir blend beautifully together in song is one of those mysterious things that seem to raise human emotion to the point of tears. The Los Angeles Master Chorale, under the direction of its music director, Grant Gershon, opened the chorale's 48th season Sunday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall achieving an extraordinary vocal excellence, and in some cases, eyes watered-up. |
Peters' Music News | Bill Peters |
| Oct 17, 2011 |
On Sunday evening, the Los Angeles Master Chorale under Grant Gershon opened its 48th season at Walt Disney Concert Hall with a program exploring aspects of earthly life and eternity. Six a cappella works by living composers made up the concert's first half. They complement... Read More On Sunday evening, the Los Angeles Master Chorale under Grant Gershon opened its 48th season at Walt Disney Concert Hall with a program exploring aspects of earthly life and eternity. Six a cappella works by living composers made up the concert's first half. They complemented and contrasted with Morten Lauridsen’s magisterial five-movement quasi-Requiem and celebration of light, “Lux Aeterna," performed after intermission. The concert began with the U.S. premiere of Thomas Jennefelt’s “Music for a Big Church; for tranquility,” composed 20 years ago. This lovely, wordless sequence of mesmerizing vocal patterns sung in a “na-na” vocalise was given a shimmering minimalist vibe by Gershon and the choir. They also effortlessly illuminated the wide vocal palette of Eric Whitacre’s “Her Sacred Spirit Soars” for double chorus. The choir’s associate conductor, Lesley Leighton, led Tarik O’Regan’s darker “Tal vez tenemos tiempo” (“Maybe we have time”), a resonant setting of Pablo Neruda’s poem. (Gershon conducted everything else.) Leighton, a longtime singer with the choir, then joined the chorale for “Heavenly Home: Three American Songs,” arranged with mastery by Shawn Kirchner. A veteran member of the ensemble’s tenor section, Kirchner uses American folk sources for “Unclouded Day,” “Angel Band” and “Hallelujah.” The choir conveyed the spirit of each with impressive phrasing and dynamic control. The Master Chorale gave the premiere of Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna” in 1997, and the half-hour piece has since grown in stature. In a pre-concert talk, Lauridsen said the work represents “the triumph of light over darkness.” It’s also a luminously intimate and personal score. It was written while Lauridsen was the choir's composer-in-residence and partly reflects a healthy consolatory grief he felt after the loss of his mother. He turned those feelings into transporting art. While some might miss the orchestral version’s grandeur and scope, this arrangement for choir and organ, with Paul Meier at the console, brought greater prominence to the score’s hypnotic vocal blend and radiant spiritual beauty. The choir's purity of sound conjured a timeless quality. It felt like only five minutes had passed. During the concluding Agnus Dei, many members of the choir began to sway individually, apparently in their own meditative space. The sold-out audience maintained total silence until well after the final Amen, and stood as Lauridsen came to the stage. There was a great roar when the choir stood. Read Less |
Los Angeles Times | Rick Schultz |
| Oct 17, 2011 |
Dubbed "one of, if not the greatest, choral ensembles on mother Earth" by Classical Voice, the Los Angeles Master Chorale proved Sunday night why they deserve the title.
The Master Chorale is one of L.A.'s premiere mu... Read More
Dubbed "one of, if not the greatest, choral ensembles on mother Earth" by Classical Voice, the Los Angeles Master Chorale proved Sunday night why they deserve the title.
The Master Chorale is one of L.A.'s premiere musical groups. It is the resident choir of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and thousands of classical music buffs visit the venue every year to hear the ensemble perform. This year is the 48th — the Chorale was founded in 1964. Grant Gershon has been musical director for the past 10 seasons. He and the choir capped off his 11th season Sunday night. "Sonically, this is a great season opener for the Chorale," Gershon said of Sunday's repetoire prior to the performance. "It shows off the Chorale's lush sound as well as the astounding acoustics of Disney Hall." Although I'd heard great things about Gershon's choir, I'd never heard them perform before; but their opening night easily exceeded my expectations. Not only was their sound lush, but it also had a vast range, allowing them to perform (and perfect) an eclectic selection of songs. The concert opened with the U.S. premiere of Swedish composer Thomas Jennefelt's "Music for a big church; for tranquility." Fittingly, the piece was relaxing, caressing the audience with waves of delicate, overlapping harmonies. Gershon conducted the song in an effortless manner. He barely needed to cue each section as they masterfully entered and exited with their intricate parts. Although the song was complex, the Chorale handled it with ease. The opening number was followed by a more dramatic piece: Eric Whitacre's "Her Sacred Spirit Soars." Whitacre, one of the most popular composers of our generation, gained his renown for his powerful use of tonal clusters and dissonance. The Master Chorale changed their tone from the previous song to capture the emotion of Whitacre's work, adopting a fuller, more dynamic sound. They showed fantastic volume control: swelling from glorious highs to quiet lows. The softer parts were impressive; it is extremely difficult to make 115 voices sound subdued. But the bigger moments of the song, where the entire choir sang together in harmonious divisi, were so ear-pleasing that they were worth the price of admission all together. The works that followed were nice to listen to, but didn't leave as large of an impact. Tarik O'Regan's "Tal vez tenemos tiempo" (translated "Maybe we have time"), an adaption of a Pablo Naruda poem, was a nice piece that showed off the choir's talent for text painting. The song also highlighted the rich tone of the bass section, which had a few great solo moments. "Heavenly Home," a trio of tunes composed by the Chorale's own vocalist Shawn Kirchner, had a light, bluegrass feel and more of a traditional style than the avant-garde pieces before it. It was cheerful and warm, but almost too simple for the talented group. After the piece ended, Kirchner was pulled from his seat in the tenor section, and he recieved generous applause from the audience. The concert concluded with the main work of the evening, "Lux Aeterna." Written by Morten Laurisden, the L.A. Master Choir's resident composer, "Lux Aeterna" is made up of five movements. The movements echo the musical style of traditional Cathoic church songs, complete with an accompanying organ. The organ was the perfect complement to the choir. Paul Meier played the instrument with a much-needed delicacy, careful not to overpower the real star of the show: the voices. The most beautiful movement was the only one of the five without accompaniment at all: a stunning a cappella number called "O Nata Lux." The last two parts of "Lux Aeterna" were joyous and celebratoral, capping off a fantastic night of music with flair. The organ returned in bravado after the third movement, and singers exuded spirit and energy with every lyric. The last words, a resounding "Alleluia, amen," were met with a standing ovation. The Los Angeles Master Chorale is only just beginning this season's promising lineup. They are scheduled to perform a wide variety of music, from Christmas tunes to Bach overtures, that are sure to satisfy many different tastes. For any Angeleno lover of choral music, a visit to Disney Hall to hear these singers in action is a definite must. Read Less |
Neon Tommy | Stephanie Case |
From Here to Eternity
by Thomas May Consider it a measure of the vibrant health of today’s choral scene that the Master Chorale has chosen to open its 48th concert season with a program devoted entirely to the work of living composers. One of these — Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna, the source for the program’s overall title — has in fact already achieved the status of a contemporary classic since the ensemble gave its world premiere only 14 years ago. Each of these composers has found distinctive ways to engage the richly colorful resources of choral writing. These span a wide spectrum, from deep-rooted traditions that reach back to Gregorian chant to Renaissance technique and the vitality of folk music, as well as modernist explorations of texture and timbre. Even more, all of the pieces we will hear point to the underlying and universal spiritual yearning that choral music is so naturally suited to express. An earlier working title for the program, remarks Music Director Grant Gershon, was “From Here to Eternity.” The a cappella works on the first half might be thought of as a kind of prologue and counterpart “to launch us into this larger idea of eternity and the hereafter” while keeping us grounded in varied references to our earthly experience. A very specific sense of place in the here and now inspired Music for a Big Church; for tranquility (1990). Thomas Jennefelt, born in Huddinge, Sweden in 1954, thought deeply about the role played by St. Johannes Church in contemporary urban life when he was commissioned to write this piece for its centennial. The composer points out that St. Johannes “is located in the very center of Stockholm, not far from the business district (with stressed clerks) and also a part of Stockholm [known for] drug-dealing and prostitution. The central location of the church has given it a new role: a place where you could find tranquility and gather strength whatever confession you have. I believe that is the modern role of many churches around the world.” Jennefelt represents a European take on minimalist style and sustains an enthralling meditation that is literally beyond speech, setting wordless syllables. Yet nothing is predictable in the sequence of patterns he weaves from the choral textures: patterns that oscillate and shimmer like light are underpinned by the bell-like tolling of the basses, while shadows gradually spread and fade. Her Sacred Spirit Soars (2002) adapts the age-old musical metaphor of the rising scale to give enchanting shape to the theme of artistic inspiration, which enables us to soar above the “gilded spires” of our proud cities and everyday lives. Originally from Reno, Nevada, Eric Whitacre has become one of today’s most frequently performed choral composers despite being a late-comer to classical music. This modern madrigal for double chorus (five parts each) was commissioned by the Heartland Festival in Platteville, Wisconsin, as an homage to its Shakespearean productions. Whitacre sets a sonnet by poet Charles Anthony Silvestri written to imitate Elizabethan style, in which the first letter of each line acrostically spells out the phrase “Hail Fair Oriana” — an epithet for Queen Elizabeth I, to whom poets in Shakespeare’s era often paid tribute as a muse-like figure. Just before the premiere of his new opera Heart of Darkness in November in his native London, Tarik O’Regan has developed a reputation for luminous choral writing as well. He locates the spiritual resonance of Tal vez tenemos tiempo, a secular poem by Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda (1904-73) which O’Regan set to music in 2007 on a commission from the Texas-based choral ensemble Conspirare. Rendered “Maybe we have time” in Alastair Reid’s English translation, the Spanish poem prompted O’Regan to treat the chorus in a predominantly homophonic style so as “to allow Neruda’s language a lot of breathing space.” Haunting dissonances and the longing tug of the tritone flavor his sensitive setting. “There is something so universally spiritual in the linguistic rhythm of the poem,” writes the composer, “that I wanted to amplify this facet in the clearest way. There are almost no overlapping, or densely ‘orchestrated’ sections in this work. The choir moves as one for much of the piece, echoing Neruda’s call for unity in carving out the time, as an individual or wider society, to ‘simply be’.” A clear highlight of the Chorale’s “Americana” program in 2010 was the premiere of Heavenly Home. As a member of the ensemble’s tenor section for the past decade, Shawn Kirchner brings a faultless grasp of choral singing to his triptych of arrangements of authentic American folk sources. The idea sprang up after he attended his first Sacred Harp Convention in 1999 and found himself amazed “that one could receive such spiritual refreshment from singing archaic hymns about heaven and hell.” The three numbers he has chosen for the set (which also include similar repertory from 19th-century song) create a wonderful internal rhythm balancing reflection and exuberance. “Unclouded Day,” a gospel favorite by the traveling preacher J.K. Alwood, mixes “Dolly Parton” inflected harmonies for the women with a “bluegrass fugue” in the third verse, while “Angel Band” stirred Kirchner to devise an accompanying melody of his own to weave in with the original song, a rare example of music that “articulate[s] the actual moments of ‘crossing over’.” His arrangement of “Hallelujah,” one of the most celebrated of Sacred Harp songs, contrasts the energetic, raw harmonies of the original setting as they are heard in the chorus with a more elaborate, polyphonic treatment for the verses. Singing this repertory, says Kirchner, resembles “spending time in a cemetery on a beautiful day — reminding yourself of where you’ve come from (dust) and where you’re ultimately going (to dust), but with the hope of heaven all around you, like the sun shining down.” In his survey of choral music in the 20th century, Nick Strimple provocatively describes Morten Lauridsen as “the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic — with the possible exception of Alan Hovhaness” (who, curiously enough, also had strong ties to the Pacific Northwest, settling in Seattle during his final decades). Lauridsen’s evolution as a composer is intimately connected with his long association with the Master Chorale, a partnership that began in 1985. One result is the work considered by many to be his masterpiece, Lux Aeterna (“Eternal Light”), which he created during his first several years as composer-in-residence. Lauridsen dedicated it to the Chorale and then-Music Director Paul Salamunovich, who led the world premiere in April 1997 and later recorded it with the ensemble on a Grammy®- nominated release. Two years after the premiere, the Chorale paired Lux Aeterna with Brahms’s A German Requiem in a program that made explicit some intriguing parallels between the two works. Lauridsen emulates the eclectic approach of Brahms in assembling his own sequence of texts into a coherent cycle (see sidebar). The model of the Christian Requiem frames the work, into which (like Brahms) Lauridsen incorporated feelings triggered by the recent loss of his mother. As in Brahms, there is no place for the angst-ridden visions of the Dies Irae. Yet even the earth-centered cycle of bereavement and consolation to which Brahms gives voice yields to the reassuring imagery of light. This imagery occurs in varied form in each of Lux Aeterna’s five interlinked movements and provides the spiritual focus for what the composer describes as “an intimate work of quiet serenity centered around a universal symbol of hope, reassurance, goodness, and illumination at all levels.” What is perceived as the “mystical” quality of Lauridsen’s music is rooted in tangible technical choices that show his command of a complex tapestry of music history. A fundamental impulse behind the score is the timeless, melodic flow of Gregorian chant (though he never literally quotes chant as such). Gershon aptly notes that Lauridsen’s unique sound world presents “a surface warmth and sheer beauty” that often conceals “an extremely sophisticated and meticulously crafted structural integrity.” It’s not necessary, for example, to be aware of the intricacies of particular compositional procedures employed here to encounter a breathtaking sense of architectural reassurance: listening to Lux Aeterna is similar to exploring a grand cathedral interior. With the reprise of the opening material from the Introitus after the Agnus Dei in the last movement, Lauridsen completes a deeply satisfying arch. A final Alleluia brings the light into sustained focus, synthesizing other ideas heard earlier and coming to rest much as the music began — with resounding serenity. SIDEBAR: What to listen for in Lux Aeterna Lauridsen’s cantata, which exists in versions accompanied either by orchestra or (as we hear tonight) by organ, clearly alludes to the traditional Catholic Requiem Mass in its title and in the texts of the first and last of its five movements. The Introitus is what would normally be expected to begin the musical setting of such a liturgy and, fittingly, lays out the main thematic ideas with which Lauridsen builds the entire cycle, echoing archaic modes and, as he writes, “reflecting the purity and directness of Renaissance sacred music vocabulary.” A specific Renaissance device is the four-part canon on “et lux perpetua” as a form of “word painting.” The most overtly complex writing occurs in In Te, Domine, Speravi, which interpolates a reference to light from the Beatus Vir into excerpts from the Te Deum, an early Christian hymn. Josquin’s masses are a model for the use of paired voices, while the words “fiat misericordia” are set as a two-part mirror canon to suggest “the idea of self-reflection as well as a dialogue between Man and Creator.” The organ meanwhile traces a cantus firmus based on an old Nuremberg songbook. Lauridsen describes movements three and four as a complementary pair. O Nata Lux, at the work’s center, contains especially mystical light imagery derived from the Gospel of John (in turn alluding to the Genesis account of light’s central role in creation). Musically, Lauridsen emphasizes this significance by making this the single a cappella movement, alluding to the tradition of sacred unaccompanied motets. Its intimate, inward focus is in sharp contrast to the worldly sound of the medieval Pentecost sequence Veni, Sancte Spiritus. The images of refreshment and joy burst forth in a dance-like rondo tune repeated several times. The Agnus Dei (the single longest section) appears in its altered wording as in the Requiem Mass and reworks a motif that was originally introduced in the Introitus (to the words “Te decet hymnus”). After the return of the principal melody from the opening movement in “lux aeterna luceat eis” (from the Communion of the Requiem), the Agnus Dei music serves as the basis for the concluding Alleluia, leading to a quiet close on “Amen.”| Title | Composers/Arranger | Guest Artists |
|---|---|---|
| Music for a Big Church; for tranquility | Thomas Jennefelt | |
| Her Sacred Spirit Soars | Eric Whitacre | |
| Tal vez tenemos tiempo | Maybe we have time | Tarik O'Regan | Lesley Leighton, Conductor, Soprano |
| Heavenly Home: Three American Songs | Shawn Kirchner | |
| 1. Unclouded Day | Shawn Kirchner | |
| 2. Angel Band | Shawn Kirchner | |
| 3. Hallelujah | Shawn Kirchner | |
| Lux Aeterna | Morten Lauridsen | |
| 1. Introitus | Morten Lauridsen | |
| 2. In Te, Domine Speravi | Morten Lauridsen | |
| 3. O Nata Lux | Morten Lauridsen | |
| 4. Veni, Sancte Spiritus | Morten Lauridsen | |
| 5. Agnus Dei - Lux Aeterna | Morten Lauridsen |
Archival Recording
| Date | Review | Media | Reviewer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 17, 2011 |
Anticipation hung heavily on the air as the opening night concert of season 2011-2012 approached. One could easily sense a spirit of joy and happiness when entering the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The long summer gap between last Spring's finale and tonight's reunion of choir ... Read More Anticipation hung heavily on the air as the opening night concert of season 2011-2012 approached. One could easily sense a spirit of joy and happiness when entering the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The long summer gap between last Spring's finale and tonight's reunion of choir and fans is second only to that of a college football fan's long wait from January until September, and in both, the long void requires satisfaction. And thus, the Los Angeles Master Chorale opened its 48th season, its 11th under the direction of Maestro Grant Gershon, with an "almost a cappella" performance with all hands on stage before a nearly sold-out house. |
Classical Voice | Douglas Neslund |
| Oct 17, 2011 |
One of the happiest phenomena of our musical times is the renaissance in choral music. Some of the most interesting new classical works are being written for choirs, and the audience grows. It may be that choirs allow for a solid marriage between the conceptual complexity of modern composit... Read More One of the happiest phenomena of our musical times is the renaissance in choral music. Some of the most interesting new classical works are being written for choirs, and the audience grows. It may be that choirs allow for a solid marriage between the conceptual complexity of modern composition and the inherently accessible nature of the human voice; or it may be that the choral work in film has brought with it a new generation of composers and listeners. |
L.A. Opening Nights | Marc Porter Zasada |
| Oct 17, 2011 |
Grant Gershon, music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, LOVES program titles. When he designed last night’s concert — the opening event in the ensemble’s 48th season — he originally called it “From Here to Eternity.” Other marketin...
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Grant Gershon, music director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, LOVES program titles. When he designed last night’s concert — the opening event in the ensemble’s 48th season — he originally called it “From Here to Eternity.” Other marketing mavens intervened, however, and the title ended up as “Lux Aeterna,” in honor of Morten Lauridsen’s famous choral work that concluded the program at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Smart move; the house was packed last night, which isn’t a surprise. Since the Master Chorale commissioned the work from Lauridsen in 1997, no other piece has more defined the ensemble. And it’s not just the Master Chorale that loves it. Since it was premiered and then recorded by the ensemble and its former music director, Paul Salumunovich, Lux Aeterna has become one of the most popular choral pieces written in recent years. In last night’s preconcert “Listen Up!” program, KUSC radio host Alan Chapman remarked that whenever Lux Aeterna is played during one of his station’s innumerable pledge drives, phones ring off the hook with donations. However, the piece performed last night was quite a ways removed from the orchestral version that most people know. Gershon chose instead to accompany the 30-minute work with Paul Meier (associate organist at St. James Episcopal Church on Wilshire Blvd.) playing the 6,100-pipe Disney Hall organ. (Lauridsen — obviously a canny businessman — wrote both versions of Lux Aeterna simultaneously, knowing that far more choruses and church choirs would be able to perform it with an organ accompanying instead of hiring an orchestra). Thus, last night’s Lux Aeterna had quite a different sound and feel to it, but that wasn’t all due to Meier. Gershon himself put his own distinctive stamp on last night’s performance, as well. The 115-member Chorale was much more expressive and subtle than on the recording, employing impeccable diction and bringing great feeling to the Latin texts in the five connected movements, including its most famous section, O Nata Lux. I wasn’t totally sold on all of Meier’s registrations and the balance between choir and organ wasn’t always perfect but the opening notes, beginning with a single note from one of Frank Gehry’s 32-foot wooden organ pipes, and the transition from O Nata Lux to Veni, Sancte Spiritus were particularly effective. The audience was mesmerized; there were at least 10 seconds of silence after the final Amen before the hall erupted in a standing ovation for Gershon, the Chorale and, in particular, Lauridsen, who was in the audience. The opening half of the program consisted of totally a cappella works, all written by still-living composers. The earliest work on the program dated from 1990: the U.S. premiere of Music for a big church; for tranquility by Swedish composer Thomas Jennefelt, a 10-minute vocalize exercise with the male voices setting a polyphonic chordal foundation while the women swirled above and below them. The rest of the first-half pieces were notable for, among other things, the composers’ ability to fit their music expertly to poetic texts, beginning with Eric Whitacre’s 2002 anthem, Her Sacred Spirit Soars, which employs rising scales from a 10-part double chorus to accentuate a text by Charles Anthony Silvestri. The Chorale’s fortissimo ending raised the proverbial Disney Hall roof. English composer Tarik O’Regan (whose first opera, Heart of Darkness, will be premiered next month at Royal Opera, Covent Garden, in London) used mostly homophonic writing that allowed the Chorale to declaim grim words by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda with great feeling. Leslie Leighton, the Chorale’s associate conductor, conducted but the Chorale couldn’t quite achieve the precision it demonstrated under Gershon in the rest of the program. The upbeat strains of Heavenly Home, a “bluegrass triptych” of 19th century American folk hymns arranged by chorus member Shawn Kirchner, concluded the opening half. Premiered by the Chorale last year, the three arrangements proved to be a perfect antidote to Neruda’s tragic depiction of a battle, even if Kirchner’s subject matter did deal with the trip from this life to the next. As far as Kirchner and the text writers are concerned, the trip (and its destination) will be joyous. Jaunty arrangements of Unclouded Day and Hallelujah bracketed the winsome Angel Band, in which Kirchner gave his fellow tenors soaring melodic lines in the middle verse. ___________ Hemidemisemiquavers: • Among the more interesting tidbits from the preconcert lecture was the revelation that Lauridsen (who has been a professor at the USC Thornton School of Music for more than 30 years) reads poetry every day and begins every class with a poem. • Photo caption: Grant Gershon conducted the Los Angeles Master Chorale last night in Walt Disney Concert Hall, the opening concert of the Chorale's 48th season. Photo credit: Alex Berliner for Los Angeles Master Chorale.Photo credit: Alex Berliner for Los Angeles Master Chorale Read Less |
Class Act | Robert D. Thomas |
| Oct 17, 2011 |
Hearing a choir blend beautifully together in song is one of those mysterious things that seem to raise human emotion to the point of tears. The Los Angeles Master Chorale, under the direction of its music director, Grant Gershon, opened the chorale's 48th season Sunday night at Wal... Read More Hearing a choir blend beautifully together in song is one of those mysterious things that seem to raise human emotion to the point of tears. The Los Angeles Master Chorale, under the direction of its music director, Grant Gershon, opened the chorale's 48th season Sunday night at Walt Disney Concert Hall achieving an extraordinary vocal excellence, and in some cases, eyes watered-up. |
Peters' Music News | Bill Peters |
| Oct 17, 2011 |
On Sunday evening, the Los Angeles Master Chorale under Grant Gershon opened its 48th season at Walt Disney Concert Hall with a program exploring aspects of earthly life and eternity. Six a cappella works by living composers made up the concert's first half. They complement... Read More On Sunday evening, the Los Angeles Master Chorale under Grant Gershon opened its 48th season at Walt Disney Concert Hall with a program exploring aspects of earthly life and eternity. Six a cappella works by living composers made up the concert's first half. They complemented and contrasted with Morten Lauridsen’s magisterial five-movement quasi-Requiem and celebration of light, “Lux Aeterna," performed after intermission. The concert began with the U.S. premiere of Thomas Jennefelt’s “Music for a Big Church; for tranquility,” composed 20 years ago. This lovely, wordless sequence of mesmerizing vocal patterns sung in a “na-na” vocalise was given a shimmering minimalist vibe by Gershon and the choir. They also effortlessly illuminated the wide vocal palette of Eric Whitacre’s “Her Sacred Spirit Soars” for double chorus. The choir’s associate conductor, Lesley Leighton, led Tarik O’Regan’s darker “Tal vez tenemos tiempo” (“Maybe we have time”), a resonant setting of Pablo Neruda’s poem. (Gershon conducted everything else.) Leighton, a longtime singer with the choir, then joined the chorale for “Heavenly Home: Three American Songs,” arranged with mastery by Shawn Kirchner. A veteran member of the ensemble’s tenor section, Kirchner uses American folk sources for “Unclouded Day,” “Angel Band” and “Hallelujah.” The choir conveyed the spirit of each with impressive phrasing and dynamic control. The Master Chorale gave the premiere of Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna” in 1997, and the half-hour piece has since grown in stature. In a pre-concert talk, Lauridsen said the work represents “the triumph of light over darkness.” It’s also a luminously intimate and personal score. It was written while Lauridsen was the choir's composer-in-residence and partly reflects a healthy consolatory grief he felt after the loss of his mother. He turned those feelings into transporting art. While some might miss the orchestral version’s grandeur and scope, this arrangement for choir and organ, with Paul Meier at the console, brought greater prominence to the score’s hypnotic vocal blend and radiant spiritual beauty. The choir's purity of sound conjured a timeless quality. It felt like only five minutes had passed. During the concluding Agnus Dei, many members of the choir began to sway individually, apparently in their own meditative space. The sold-out audience maintained total silence until well after the final Amen, and stood as Lauridsen came to the stage. There was a great roar when the choir stood. Read Less |
Los Angeles Times | Rick Schultz |
| Oct 17, 2011 |
Dubbed "one of, if not the greatest, choral ensembles on mother Earth" by Classical Voice, the Los Angeles Master Chorale proved Sunday night why they deserve the title.
The Master Chorale is one of L.A.'s premiere mu... Read More
Dubbed "one of, if not the greatest, choral ensembles on mother Earth" by Classical Voice, the Los Angeles Master Chorale proved Sunday night why they deserve the title.
The Master Chorale is one of L.A.'s premiere musical groups. It is the resident choir of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and thousands of classical music buffs visit the venue every year to hear the ensemble perform. This year is the 48th — the Chorale was founded in 1964. Grant Gershon has been musical director for the past 10 seasons. He and the choir capped off his 11th season Sunday night. "Sonically, this is a great season opener for the Chorale," Gershon said of Sunday's repetoire prior to the performance. "It shows off the Chorale's lush sound as well as the astounding acoustics of Disney Hall." Although I'd heard great things about Gershon's choir, I'd never heard them perform before; but their opening night easily exceeded my expectations. Not only was their sound lush, but it also had a vast range, allowing them to perform (and perfect) an eclectic selection of songs. The concert opened with the U.S. premiere of Swedish composer Thomas Jennefelt's "Music for a big church; for tranquility." Fittingly, the piece was relaxing, caressing the audience with waves of delicate, overlapping harmonies. Gershon conducted the song in an effortless manner. He barely needed to cue each section as they masterfully entered and exited with their intricate parts. Although the song was complex, the Chorale handled it with ease. The opening number was followed by a more dramatic piece: Eric Whitacre's "Her Sacred Spirit Soars." Whitacre, one of the most popular composers of our generation, gained his renown for his powerful use of tonal clusters and dissonance. The Master Chorale changed their tone from the previous song to capture the emotion of Whitacre's work, adopting a fuller, more dynamic sound. They showed fantastic volume control: swelling from glorious highs to quiet lows. The softer parts were impressive; it is extremely difficult to make 115 voices sound subdued. But the bigger moments of the song, where the entire choir sang together in harmonious divisi, were so ear-pleasing that they were worth the price of admission all together. The works that followed were nice to listen to, but didn't leave as large of an impact. Tarik O'Regan's "Tal vez tenemos tiempo" (translated "Maybe we have time"), an adaption of a Pablo Naruda poem, was a nice piece that showed off the choir's talent for text painting. The song also highlighted the rich tone of the bass section, which had a few great solo moments. "Heavenly Home," a trio of tunes composed by the Chorale's own vocalist Shawn Kirchner, had a light, bluegrass feel and more of a traditional style than the avant-garde pieces before it. It was cheerful and warm, but almost too simple for the talented group. After the piece ended, Kirchner was pulled from his seat in the tenor section, and he recieved generous applause from the audience. The concert concluded with the main work of the evening, "Lux Aeterna." Written by Morten Laurisden, the L.A. Master Choir's resident composer, "Lux Aeterna" is made up of five movements. The movements echo the musical style of traditional Cathoic church songs, complete with an accompanying organ. The organ was the perfect complement to the choir. Paul Meier played the instrument with a much-needed delicacy, careful not to overpower the real star of the show: the voices. The most beautiful movement was the only one of the five without accompaniment at all: a stunning a cappella number called "O Nata Lux." The last two parts of "Lux Aeterna" were joyous and celebratoral, capping off a fantastic night of music with flair. The organ returned in bravado after the third movement, and singers exuded spirit and energy with every lyric. The last words, a resounding "Alleluia, amen," were met with a standing ovation. The Los Angeles Master Chorale is only just beginning this season's promising lineup. They are scheduled to perform a wide variety of music, from Christmas tunes to Bach overtures, that are sure to satisfy many different tastes. For any Angeleno lover of choral music, a visit to Disney Hall to hear these singers in action is a definite must. Read Less |
Neon Tommy | Stephanie Case |
