#morton lauridsen

[sliding-graphite]

So big thanks to @felix-floyd for doing daily NSP Danny lyric posts, because one of them reminded me about "Puppies In Space."

So... choir arrangement. Have fun! If anyone wants to try singing this, I can DM you the guides!

Minor surprises / spoilers under the cut:

Greatly inspired by:

The Earth Song -- composed by Frank Ticheli

Sure On This Shining Night -- arr. by James Agee, based on the poem by Morton Lauridsen

The joke involves the song "Beautiful" from the Heathers musical

Special thanks to Lukas "thatluckypanda" and Felix for inspiring and motivating me to start NSP creative stuff again!

[uttering-joyous-leaves]

ranier maria rilke (comp. morton lauridsen), "dirait-on" // frank o'hara, "a hill" // e. e. cummings, "i have found what you are like" // walt whitman, "song of myself" // salman toor, "the confession" // jane kenyon, "the suitor"

[profblahson]

I’m doing a conducting workshop next week!! Gonna wave my arms as professionally as I can in front of a lab band with these three pieces!

For video applications, schools look for different styles, and want usually between 10-15 minutes of video (they usually ask for performance and rehearsal, but given my circumstances, most people I’ve talked to have been accommodating). The workshop wanted us to choose three pieces minimum, with a variety of styles, so I chose these.

Slava! - Bernstein, trans. Grundman.

Slava was the nickname given to Mitslav Rostropovich by his friends. Bernstein wrote the overture for Mistlav’s inaugural season with the National Symphony Orchestra, premiering in 1977. Originally, the piece also has audio recordings, and someone shouts Slava’s dog’s name before the middle section.

I love this piece. It’s silly, it’s rambunctious, and it’s challenging. I chose it as my hard piece, to challenge my own conducting technique. It’s got fun meter changes (there’s a lot of 7), lots of small cues to make, style changes, the works. It’s dense, too, so keeping track while on the podium can be hard, and that’s why I wanted to go for it.

Halcyon Hearts - Katahj Copley

There’s not much I can say about this that the composer doesn’t in the notes, so I’m gonna quote a bit of that real quick

“Loves does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth

It will always protect, trust, hope, and persevere for you - love never fails”

The piece is dedicated “to those who love all of mankind- no matter the negativity around you.”

When selecting pieces for this workshop, of course I listened to the options, but I also like to read notes from composers, stories behind the piece, etc.

So when I read this dedication, I teared up and knew I had to choose this piece. These last few years have been so challenging for me - for everyone -, and it’s the love that I’ve found with my friends and within myself that has gotten me through it. I’ve learned that I want to love people so much, and spread it as I can. I’m still learning, of course, but it’s been a huge part of my thoughts and being lately.

This is also the difficulty level that I would have been programming with my students had I still been teaching, so it felt appropriate to learn a new piece to add to my arsenal, should I return to public school.

The piece explores different colors and timbres, and uses them to bring a sound of hope to the ensemble. It’s very uplifting!

O Magnum Mysterium - Morton Lauridsen, arr. H. Robert Reynolds

Despite what the Latin text might lead you to think, the original choral composition was premiered in 1994. If you have a few minutes, I highly suggest listening to this band arrangement. It is so so so beautiful (I’m also biased, as the Horns are the prominent melodic color through a lot of the piece, including-especially-the climax).

I chose this as my slow, melodic piece. I have performed it several times, and it was one of the pieces I had a bit of time to rehearse the last time I was on a podium. Words are escaping me, so it’s hard for me to say much more than it’s absolutely beautiful, and I’m excited to play and conduct it again. I can’t stop thinking about the apex of this piece.

I am so very excited to get back in front of an ensemble, and really hope my instincts kick in. It’s been more than a year since I was in front of an ensemble, and nearly two full years since I was actively teaching.

Getting back to school is hard, but I’m wanting to put in the work. I just need the time.

Thank you for yours.

[fuckaspunk]

Today's Bonerjams

[dontbeanassbutt]

OH MY GOD YOU LIKE MEMLEY’S O Magnum Mysterium??? I sang that once for All-Region Choir a couple years ago and fell in love! But nobody ever talks about it because it gets overshadowed by the Morton Lauridsen one and it’s super hard to find recordings of the Memley one.

HI ANON ARE YOU FROM TEXAS

[reedienews]

This Sunday, "Beyond Borders: Carols, Hymns, & Lullabies" with the Reed Chorus and Collegium Musicum will include Conrad Susa's "Carols & Lullabies of the Southwest," selections from "Mid-Winter Songs" by Morton Lauridsen, and more. 🎼

Free and open to the public on December 8 at 3 pm in Kaul Auditorium.

[santafeanmagazine]

Sunday March 3, 4pm: Choral Masterworks at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

The Santa Fe Symphony Chorus, under the direction of Carmen Flórez-Mansi, performs choral works by Ola Gjeilo, Morton Lauridsen, John Rutter, and others. Free, donations appreciated, 4 pm, 505-983-3530,

Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi 131 Cathedral Pl, santafesymphony.org.

Above: Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and portrait of Carmen Flórez-Mansi. (Photography by Insight Foto).

[abager]

No one likes to arrive too early at a party. There’s no one to talk to and nowhere to hide. You can’t leave without being conspicuously rude.  In due course you find yourself talking about car insurance (or worse still, Brexit) with other new arrivals. Of course, there’s the decor to look at (paintings you don’t much like) and there’s the buffet, tempting but as yet untouchable.

As hosts, though, we’re always grateful to those who arrive early and get things going.

New social networks have a hard time too. What’s the point of joining if no one’s there?

In gigglemusic, our new social network for classical musicians, we try to solve that problem by offering new users content that doesn’t depend on the community being large. We’ve uploaded the schedules of major classical music venues around the world (for the moment mainly opera houses).

We’ve also entered the ‘diaries’ of the world’s greatest composers – well, the greatest composers writing within the Western tradition or having some significant influence on it. By their diaries I mean their dates and places of birth and death (though many are still alive and kicking) and the dates and places of the first performances of their major works. Almost all of this comes from Wikipedia.

It may be a bit like trainspotting, but I, for one, find it mildly interesting to know where this or that masterpiece was first performed, and when.

To review a composer’s diary, start with People, open a profile, tap Diary and then scroll up to go back in time. Tap on an individual work to find out more. There’s usually a Wikipedia article to link to.

  But who are the world’s greatest composers?

There’s no ideology behind the selection I’ve made, and no conscious exclusions (I’ve even included Carl Orff). They’re just the first 292 composers who came to mind, and for whom there was also a Wikipedia entry. I’m sure the assiduous researcher will detect unconscious bias, but if you do, please tell me who I’ve missed. There’s room for nearly everyone in gigglemusic.

Adam (Adolphe) Adams (John) Adès (Thomas) Albeniz (Isaac) Albinoni (Tomaso) Alwyn (William) Arne (Thomas) Arnold (Malcolm) Auric (Georges) Bach (Carl Philipp Emanuel) Bach (Johann Sebastian) Balakirev (Mily) Barber (Samuel) Bartok (Bela) Bax (Arnold) Beach (Amy) Beamish (Sally) Beethoven (Ludwig van) Bellini (Vincenzo) Bennett (Richard Rodney) Berg (Alban) Berio (Luciano) Berkeley (Lennox) Berkeley (Michael) Berlioz (Hector) Berners (Gerald (Lord)) Bernstein (Leonard) Berwald (Franz) Birtwistle (Harrison) Bizet (Georges) Bliss (Arthur) Blitzstein (Marc) Bloch (Ernst) Blow (John) Bologne (Joseph) Borodin (Alexander) Boulanger (Lili) Boulanger (Nadia) Boulez (Pierre) Bowen (York) Bozza (Eugene) Brahms (Johannes) Brian (Havergal) Bridgetower (George) Britten (Benjamin) Bruch (Max) Bruckner (Anton) Bush (Alan) Busoni (Ferrucio) Butterworth (George) Buxtehude (Dietrich) Cage (John) Canteloube (Joseph) Carter (Elliot) Chabrier (Emmanuel) Chagrin (Francis) Chaminade (Cécile) Charpentier (Gustave) Chausson (Ernest) Cherubini (Luigi) Chopin (Frédéric) Cilea (Francesco) Cimarosa (Domenico) Clarke (Rebecca) Clementi (Muzio) Coleridge-Taylor (Samuel) Copland (Aaron) Corelli (Arcangelo) Cornelius (Peter) Couperin (Francois) Cui (César) Czerny (Carl) Dallapiccola (Luigi) Debussy (Claude) Delibes (Léo) Delius (Frederick) Dittersdorf (Carl Ditters von) Dohnányi (Ernst von) Donizetti (Gaetano) Dorati (Antal) Dukas (Paul) Duruflé (Maurice) Dutilleux (Henri) Dvorak (Antonin) Einem (Gottfried von) Eisler (Hans) Elgar (Edward) Ellington (Duke) Enescu (George) Erkel (Ferenc) Falla (Manuel de) Fauré (Gabriel) Feldman (Morton) Ferguson (Howard) Ferneyhough (Brian) Field (John) Finzi (Gerald) Francaix (Jean) Franck (César) Gabrieli (Giovanni) Gershwin (George) Ginastera (Alberto) Giordano (Umberto) Glass (Philip) Glazunov (Alexander) Glière (Reinhold) Glinka (Mikhail) Gluck (Christoph Willibald) Górecki (Henryk) Gounod (Charles) Grainger (Percy) Granados (Enrique) Grieg (Edvard) Grovlez (Gabriel) Gubaidulina (Sofia) Gurney (Ivor) Haas (Pavel) Handel (George Frideric) Harty (Hamilton) Haydn (Joseph) Head (Michael) Hindemith (Paul) Hoddinott (Alun) Holliger (Heinz) Holst (Gustav) Honegger (Arthur) Howells (Herbert) Hummel (Johann Nepomuk) Humperdinck (Engelbert) Ibert (Jacques) Indy (Vincent d’) Ireland (John) Ives (Charles) Jacob (Gordon) Janacek (Leos) Jolivet (André ) Joplin (Scott) Kalivoda (Jan) Kálmán (Emmerich) Khachaturian (Aram) Knussen (Oliver) Kodaly (Zoltan) Koechlin (Charles) Korngold (Erich) Krenek (Ernst) Krommer (Franz) Kurtág (György) Lalo (Édouard) Lang (David) Lauridsen (Morten) Leclair (Jean-Marie) Lehár (Franz) Leifs (Jón) Leigh (Walter) Leoncavallo (Ruggero) Ligeti (Gyorgy) Liszt (Franz) Loeillet (Jean Baptiste) Lyadov (Anatoly) Mahler (Alma) Mahler (Gustav) Marcello (Alessandro) Martin (Frank) Martinu (Bohuslav) Mascagni (Pietro) Massenet (Jules) Maxwell Davies (Peter) Medtner (Nikolai) Mendelssohn (Felix) Menotti (Gian Carlo) Messiaen (Olivier) Meyerbeer (Giacomo) Milhaud (Darius) Moeran (Ernest) Monteverdi (Claudio) Morricone (Ennio) Moyzes (Alexander) Mozart (Wolfgang Amadeus) Mussorgsky (Modest) Nancarrow (Conlon) Nielsen (Carl) Nono (Luigi) Nyman (Michael) Offenbach (Jacques) Orff (Carl) Pachelbel (Johann) Paderewski (Ignacy Jan) Paganini (Niccolò) Paisiello (Giovanni) Palestrina (Giovanni Pierluigi da) Panufnik (Andrzej) Parry (Hubert) Pärt (Arvo) Pasculli (Antonio) Penderecki (Krzysztof) Pepusch (Johann Christoph) Pergolesi (Giovanni) Piazzola (Astor) Poulenc (Francis) Previn (André) Price (Florence) Prokofiev (Sergei) Puccini (Giacomo) Purcell (Henry) Quantz (Johann Joachim) Quilter (Roger) Rachmaninoff (Sergei) Raff (Joachim) Rameau (Jean-Philippe) Ravel (Maurice) Reger (Max) Reich (Steve) Reinecke (Carl) Reizenstein (Franz) Respighi (Ottorino) Richardson (Alan) Riley (Terry) Rimsky-Korsakov (Nikolai) Rodrigo (Joaquín) Rossini (Giacomo) Rota (Nino) Rubbra (Edmund) Saint-Saëns (Camille) Salieri (Antonio) Sammartini (Giovanni Battista) Satie (Erik) Scarlatti (Domenico) Schnittke (Alfred) Schoeck (Othmar) Schoenberg (Arnold) Schubert (Franz) Schumann (Clara) Schumann (Robert) Scriabin (Alexander) Sessions (Roger) Shostakovich (Dmitri) Sibelius (Jean) Sinding (Christian) Skalkottas (Nikos) Smetana (Bedrich) Smyth (Ethel) Sondheim (Stephen) Sorabji (Kaikhosru Shapurji) Spohr (Louis) Stanford (Charles Villiers) Stenhammar (Wilhelm) Still (William Grant) Stockhausen (Karlheinz) Strauss (Johann) I Strauss (Johann) II Strauss (Richard) Stravinsky (Igor) Suk (Josef) Sullivan (Arthur) Sweelinck (Jan Pieterszoon) Szymanowski (Karol) Tailleferre (Germaine) Takemitsu (Toru) Tallis (Thomas) Tavener (John) Tchaikovsky (Pyotr) Tcherepnin (Alexander) Tcherepnin (Nikolai) Telemann (Georg Philipp) Thompson (Virgil) Tippett (Michael) Tubin (Edward) Turnage (Mark-Anthony) Varese (Edgard) Vaughan Williams (Ralph) Verdi (Giuseppe) Vierne (Louis) Villa-Lobos (Heitor) Vivaldi (Antonio) Wagner (Richard) Walker (George) Walton (William) Warlock (Peter) Weber (Carl Maria von) Webern (Anton) Weelkes (Thomas) Weill (Kurt) Weir (Judith) Widor (Charles-Marie) Williams (John) Williamson (Malcolm) Wolf (Hugo) Xenakis (Iannis) Ysaÿe (Eugène) Yun (Isang) Zelenka (Jan Dismas) Zemlinsky (Alexander von)

  The Great Composers No one likes to arrive too early at a party. There's no one to talk to and nowhere to hide.

[kamandzak]

Music Challenge - Day XVI

Who is your favorite DEAD composer?

Morton Lauridsen. He wrote O Magnum Mysterium, arguably the most beautiful piece of music I’ve ever heard/played/sung. 

[throughtherabbitholeitravel]

I could listen to O Magnum Mysterium by Morton Lauridsen for the rest of my life.

[culturevulturette]

Chillax to some of the most beautiful music you’ve ever heard...

[honeyinmytea]

Stoked to sing this today with MORTON LAURIDSEN HIMSELF accompanying us! It's going to be a gorgeous afternoon celebrating Lauridsen's music and gleaning compositional wisdom from him. My school spoils the crap out of me.

Translation:

Abandon surrounding abandon, Tenderness touching tenderness… Your oneness endlessly Caresses itself, so they say; Self-caressing through its own clear reflection. Thus you invent the theme of Narcissus fulfilled.

[signoradavinci]

Abandon entouré d’abandon, tendresse touchant aux tendresses… C’est ton intérieur qui sans cesse se caresse, dirait-on; se caresse en soi-même, par son propre reflet éclairé. Ainsi tu inventes le thème du Narcisse exaucé.

Abandon surrounding abandon, Tenderness touching tenderness… Your oneness endlessly Caresses itself, so they say; Self-caressing through its own clear reflection. Thus you invent the theme of Narcissus fulfilled.

[unsungtunes]

The choir of Westminister cathedral beautifully render this moving composition of Lauridsen.

[dapertutto]

Lux Aeterna de Morten Lauridsen (parte 3). Los Angeles Master Chorale and Sinfonia Orchestra, Paul Salamunovich