Choral

Gesualdo’s “Moro, Lasso, Al moi duolo”: Shocking Sounds from the Late Renaissance

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“Extremely shocking and disgusting to the ear”—that is how English historian Charles Burney described the music of Italian late Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo (c. 1561–1613) in his 1776 book, A General History of Music. With its wrenching chromaticism, raw dissonances, and strange, wandering harmonies, Gesualdo’s music still sounds edgy to 21st-century ears. The five-voice secular madrigal Moro, lasso, al mio duolo (“I die, languishing, from grief”) was published in Gesualdo’s Sixth Book …

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“The Lord is My Shepherd”: Settings of Psalm 23 by Rutter and Schubert

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English composer John Rutter (b. 1945) composed a setting of Psalm 23 in 1976 as a standalone anthem, and later incorporated it as the sixth movement of his supremely beautiful 1985 Requiem. The solo oboe, an instrument which carries pastoral associations, is a recurring voice, at once longing and serene. The harp, another prominent voice, has ancient rustic roots among shepherds. Scored for four-part female choir, Franz Schubert’s setting of Psalm 23 …

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Nielsen’s Wind Quintet: A Cast of Instrumental Characters

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Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s Wind Quintet, Op. 43 unfolds as a musical conversation among a cast of instrumental characters. Composed in 1922 immediately following the Fifth Symphony, the Quintet is scored for flute, oboe (English horn), clarinet, bassoon, and horn. Nielsen was inspired to write the work after a brief telephone conversation with a fellow musician in which he heard, in the background, members of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet rehearsing Mozart’s Sinfonia …

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Dvořák’s Te Deum: A Festive Cantata for the New World

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In the summer of 1892, three months before he was scheduled to depart his Czech homeland for America, Antonín Dvořák received a commission for a festive cantata. The request came from Mrs. Jeannette Thurber, the American philanthropist and arts patron who, in 1885 founded the National Conservatory of Music in New York. It was Thurber who recruited Dvořák to serve as the fledgling institution’s director. The cantata would allow the composer to introduce …

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Vivaldi’s “Nulla in mundo pax sincera”: A Concerto for Voice

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Following a traditional four part structure (aria-recitative-aria-Alleluia), Antonio Vivaldi’s sacred motets have been likened to “vocal concertos.” Composed between 1713 and 1719, Nulla in mundo pax sincera, RV 630 (“In this world there is no honest peace”) was intended for a virtuosic soprano with an exceptionally high range. Vivaldi composed this music while employed as music director at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice. Supported by the city and private patrons, the …

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Bruckner’s “Ecce sacerdos magnus”: Thunderous Power and Majesty

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Anton Bruckner’s sacred motet, Ecce sacerdos magnus, WAB 13 (“Behold a great priest”) begins with an earth-shattering announcement, set in motion by primal open fifths. The Old Testament text celebrates the blessings given to devout men. Scored for eight-part choir, organ, and three trombones, it is music of thunderous power, majesty, and solemn mystery. Growing out of Medieval plainchant, its soaring antiphonal blocks of sound recall the Renaissance strains of Giovanni Gabrieli. As …

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“Music, When Soft Voices Die”: Frank Bridge’s Setting of Shelley

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“Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory.” These are the opening lines of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous 1824 poem, a meditation on the eternal nature of memory, sensation, and love. English composer Frank Bridge (1879-1941) created an a cappella choral setting of the poem in 1907. The opening phrases pay homage to the English madrigal tradition. Visions of mortality are painted tonally with a plaintive sighing gesture. The final notes …

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