# New Choral Music



## Orange Soda King (Sep 14, 2010)

Does anybody get into choral music by living composers? My university's choirs sing a lot of new music. Some composers we particularly take a bit of interest in are Eriks Esenvalds, Ola Gjielo, and Vytautas Miškinis. I actually got to meet Ola Gjielo and talk to him for a while. He is a nice and humble man as well as a talented composer for multiple mediums.

Here are some examples (the last one is a pretty AWESOME piece of music):
My choir: 



 ("Long Road", Esenvalds)
Not my choir: 



 ("Tota Pulchra Es", Gjielo)
Another choir at my university: 



 ("At this Time of my Parting, Miškinis)




 ("Que rico e' (Mambo!)", Guido Lopez Gavilan)

Hope you enjoy! And yes, my tastes are a little based off the music my university's choirs have sung, but that's because I'm new to the choral literature and this is what I'm being exposed to first. I'm sure in a few years I will have discovered plenty of repertoire from other sources besides the choirs I sing in.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I'll have to check out those interesting sounding links you posted, I'm at a computer without any sound at the moment.

I'm no expert in this field (member here stlukesguildohio is more into this stuff), but I have gone to a few concerts in the past year of choral music in general, including contemporary choral music. One of the composers that has been getting some exposure in the concert halls here in Sydney of late (or more accurately churches, which is were choral gigs are usually held) is the American *Morten Lauridsen*. I heard his Lux Aeterna for mixed chorus and organ last year, and it is an interesting blend of the old and new, from Monteverdi to the contemporary trends. Another American composer whose music I heard at the same concert was *Eric Whitacre* - his pieces, though only a few minutes long, made quite an impact on me. Then there's the Scottish *James Macmillan* who has also done some interesting stuff, but I only heard an excerpt from one of his longer works last year. *Arvo Part* is also good, but (I feel that) after you've heard one of his pieces, you've heard them all. That's not the whole extent of my knowledge of this field, but these are the ones that I think are really worth checking out...


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Some nice singing in there. It was interesting to me that all the music was of a certain 'type' - conservative music that wouldn't tax an audience too much (_Que rico e_ was the closest to anything 'challenging').

I wonder if you have come across works which stretch the boundaries a bit more?

Ligeti - _Lux aeterna_
Per Nørgård - _Wie ein Kind_
Penderecki - _Stabat Mater_
Veljo Tormis - _Raua needmine_ (Curse Upon Iron)


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

You should check out The Promised Land.


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## Orange Soda King (Sep 14, 2010)

Delicious Manager said:


> Some nice singing in there. It was interesting to me that all the music was of a certain 'type' - conservative music that wouldn't tax an audience too much (_Que rico e_ was the closest to anything 'challenging').
> 
> I wonder if you have come across works which stretch the boundaries a bit more?
> 
> ...


Delicious, Per Norgard was the guest composer for our New Music Festival last semester! We sang the entire Wie Ein Kind (all three movements), along with an Abenlied and "Hallelujah der Herr ist verruckt".

Andre, I'm afraid I'm not deeply moved by Eric Whitacre's music. I'm more than certain I've sang something by Lauridsen, but I don't know what at this point...


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Orange Soda King said:


> Delicious, Per Norgard was the guest composer for our New Music Festival last semester! We sang the entire Wie Ein Kind (all three movements), along with an Abenlied and "Hallelujah der Herr ist verruckt".


There are some other wonderful choral works by Nørgård:
_I Hear the Rain_
_2 Wölfli-Lieder
3 Agnus Dei Motets
6 Danish Choral Songs
4 Latin Motets
Drømmesange
Maya danser
Singe die Gärten, mein Herz
Winter Hymn_


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## reinvandijk (Apr 22, 2011)

*Erik Esenvalds Long Road*

Hello, 
Can somebody give me some details about Long Road? Would it be possible to sing it with ssatb.

Look at you tube for my ensemble:





e-mail to [email protected]


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## Orange Soda King (Sep 14, 2010)

reinvandijk said:


> Hello,
> Can somebody give me some details about Long Road? Would it be possible to sing it with ssatb.
> 
> Look at you tube for my ensemble:
> ...


I am afraid that Long Road only works well with a large ensemble, unless it were arranged somehow. There are 2 soprano parts, 2 alto parts, two tenor parts, and two bass parts. In addition, there is also an SSAATTBB mini-choir that sings with the rest of the choir backing them up with hums. Even still, during the chorus sections, a few select sopranos and altos sing some lines that soar along with the main choir. And to top things off, there are the "mmm, ahhhh" sections with very full chords, and a few ocarinas/recorders and triangles/bells are scored during those sections. One could play the triangles or bells while singing, but not the ocarinas/recorders.

Two of my school's choirs sing it: one has a little over 40 people, and the other has a little over 60. That should maybe give you an idea of the how big the choir needed to sing it, unless you rearrange it somehow.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Seeing that vocal music is my passion... with choral music being perhaps the most important branch therein (to be)... and considering that I do like to explore and listen to contemporary music, yes, I do know of and listen to a good deal of choral music by living composers. Among works I enjoy I would include:

*Peteris Vasks*- Pater Noster, Dona Nobis Pacem, Missa
*David Lang*- The Match Girl Passion
*Rautavaara*- Choral Music (Hyperion)
*Carl Rütti*- Requiem
*Magnus Lindberg*- Graffiti, Seht die Sonne (Ondine)
*Eric Whitacre*- Cloudburst (Hyperion); Choral Music (Naxos)
*James Whitbourne*- Luminosity (Naxos)
*David Briggs*- Mass for Notre Dame (Hyperion)
*John Taverner*- Ex Maria Virgine (Naxos); Schuon Hymnen; The Second Coming; Exhortations and Kohima; Shûnya (Hyperion); Requiem; Lament for Jerusalem (Naxos)
*John Rutter*- Be Thou My Vision (Cambridge Singers); Requiem (Hyperion)
*James MacMillan*- Seven Last Words from the Cross (Naxos), Mass and other Sacred Works (Hyperion), The Birds of Rhiannon (Chandos), St. John Passion (LSO)
*Tarik O'Regan*- Voices (Collegium); Threshold of Night (Harmonia Mundi)
*Roberto Sierra*- _Missa Latina 'Pro Pace'_ (Naxos)
*Frank Ferko*- Stabat Mater
*Julian Wachner*- Complete Choral Music 1 (Naxos)
*Morten Lauridsen*- Lux Aeterna, etc... (RCM); Nocturnes (Hyperion); O magnum mysterium O nata lux, Madrigali, Mid-Winter Songs Naxos)
*Arvo Pärt*-Te Deum / Kaljuste (ECM); In Principio (ECM); Lamentate (ECM); Tabula Rasa (ECM); De Profundis (Harmonia Mundi); I am the True Vine (Harmonia Mundi); Misere (ECM)
*John Adams*-Harmonium; On the Transmigration of Souls
*Pascal Dusapin*- requiem(s) (Naive)
*Dominique Vellard*- Vox Nostra Resonet
*Vladimir Godar*- Mater
*Veljo Tormis*- Tormis (Hyperion); Forgotten People (Atma); Veljo Tormis on American Shores
*Yannis Markopoulos*-The Liturgy of Orpheus (Naxos)
*Krzystof Penderecki*- Utrenja; Te Deum; St. Luke Passion; A Polish Requiem; Credo (all Naxos)
*György Ligeti*- A' Cappella Choral Works (especially _Lux Aeterna_- Sony)
*Osvaldo Golijov*- La Pasión según San Marcos


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Good list, Stlukes...
I'd add *Penderecki*'s searing _Dies irae oratorio in memory of those murdered at Auschwitz_
*Roberto **Gerhard*'s harrowing_ The plague_ (based on Camus' novel)
*Ligeti *_Requiem_
*Olivier Messiaen *_Trois petites liturgies_ (women's choir) and _La transfiguration de notre Seigneur_

(OK, three of these are not living composers, but their music is more modern and contemporary than some of the living composers listed)


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## GoneBaroque (Jun 16, 2011)

You might like to check out Knut Nystedt

Immortal Bach is based on Bach's Komm Susser Tod






and O Crux






Kurt Nystedt was born in 1915 is is still living. There are other worthwhile pieces you should look at.

Rob


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## Sofronitsky (Jun 12, 2011)




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## NCA (Dec 28, 2011)

*Please Submit Performances of Living Composers Choral Music*

A new internet radio Station went "LIVE" in November 2011. They only play music from New Choral Artists. They play Known and Very Obscure works. They are eager to get "new" material submitted for airplay. They will promote the performer's recordings as well. Their website is www.NCA.uk.me. You can also check them out on Facebook under "New Choral Artists Radio"

They currently use the broadcast services of LIVE3^5. But are leaving them in February to stop obtrusive advertisements from interfering with the listening experience.


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## Guest (Dec 28, 2011)

*@GB* what a great piece by Knut Nystedt I like very much


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