From: baldwin@cogsci.ucsd.EDU (Ken Baldwin)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: SUMMARY: modern liturgical music
Date: 26 Sep 92 17:30:37 GMT
Organization: University of California, San Diego


Thanks to all those who responded to my request for suggestions
of modern liturgical music. My original posting and an
edited summary of responses follows.

Ken Baldwin
(kbaldwin@ucsd.edu)

****************************************************************

Article: 30112 of rec.music.classical
Subject: modern liturgical music
Date: 20 Sep 92 00:39:06 GMT

I'm looking for suggestions of "modern liturgical music".
I'm familar with works by Arvo Part and Stravinsky which would
qualify. Any other pointers would be appreciated. Thanks,

Ken Baldwin
(kbaldwin@ucsd.edu)

*****

From: pkbockus@gsbphd.uchicago.edu (Keith Bockus)

Try Requiem by Sandro Gorli (born 1948).  You can find
it on French Harmonia Mundi HMC 901320 performed by 
Ensemble Vocal Europeen de La Chapelle Royale directed
by Philippe Herreweghe.  It is both very beautiful and,
befitting the subject, very scary.  

The Gorli Requiem is actually only a filler on the above
disk, which is mostly filled with some motets and
Tenebrae Responsories by Carlo Gesualdo.

*****

From: spxsjm@thor.cf.ac.uk (Mr S J Morris 92)

Try John Rutter - I'm not sure if he's British or American but he's
written a fair bit of 'Anglican' style church music - both hymn tunes
and more substantial choral pieces - which are really rather good.

*****

From: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)

John Tavener is an obvious one (rather similar to Part in approach).  He's
popular enough that you shouldn't have much trouble finding his stuff.

Other stuff that might be harder to find:

Frank Martin's choral music (a Mass, a Requiem, and an oratorio "In Terra
Pax" on the Book of Revelation) has been recorded occasionally - rather
like an attempt to redo Schutz in 20th-century idiom: stark and to the
point.

Poulenc's "Four Motets for a Time of Penitence" are some of the best music
he ever wrote - dunno what recordings exist, though.  His other liturgical
music is OK but not in the same league.

Messiaen's "Trois Petites Liturgies de la Presence Divine", despite the
title, are something I can hardly imagine ever being used liturgically, but
they are so spectacularly over the top you've just GOT to hear them anyway.

The "Messe Solenelle" by Jean Langlais.  This is more like the Stravinsky
Mass: dark and gritty.  What else has Langlais written? - he doesn't seem
to get many performances here.

*****

From: 00hfstahlke@bsu-ucs.uucp (Herb Stahlke)

From a lot of years singing in Lutheran choirs, I've run into some very fine
liturgical pieces by Jan Bender, Hugo Distler, Knut Nystedt, and Ernst Pepping,
to mention several that come immediately to mind.

*****

From: gtaylor@vme.heurikon.com (Gregory Taylor)

Run right out and purchase for yourself a copy of the Hyperion CD
"The Sacred Music of John Tavener." If this doesn't move you just
a little bit, I'll be surprised....he's in Part's territory, but rooted
more in the Greek Orthodox tradition.

*****

From: dbarker@spang.Camosun.BC.CA (Deryk Barker)

John Tavener's 'Ikon of Light'. Tallis Scholars (Gimmell I think).
Quite incredible; if you like Part you'll probably like this, although
it's not really similar except in concentration.

*****

From: diarmuid@uniwa.uwa.edu.au (Diarmuid Pigott)

What about the music of Malcolm Williamson. He has wrtten some wonderful
liturgical stuff.

I don't know if any's in print at the moment. I have a prehistoric
Castle or Paxton recording of some psalms and kyries.

*****

From: mgresham@dscatl.UUCP (Mark Gresham)

Hugo Distler is definitely liturgical music's best kept secret.
Had he lived longer, he would have had a significant place in the
history of liturgial music.   His "Lo, How A Rose" is a gem.

Nystedt's "O Crux" is excellent, as is his "In Principio" though
I like the former better myself.  (Not for the harmonically timid.)

*****

From: genetic+@pitt.edu (Dr. Dave)

If you can find them, the works of Stephen Stuckey are excellent.  He was
(is?) composer-in-residence at Cornell University, and I got the chance to
perform a number of his liturgical and secular works while I was living in
Ithaca.  The sacred works are (if I can get away with saying this in such
an art-for-art's-sake forum) extremely intelligently crafted, so that they
are (1) beautiful, (2) interesting, (3) liturgically effective, and (4) easy
enough for a decent amateur church choir to do justice to them.  "Well suited
to their intended function", as it were.

(You can see that this is deliberate by comparing Stuckey's nonliturgical
works, which tend to be rather more daring and difficult, including aleatoric
elements and much more astringent tonalities.  I strongly recommend his
reworking of the Gibbons song "Drop, Drop Slow Tears"...)

*****

From: erwin@helsinki.ks.uiuc.edu (Edgar Erwin)

How about Krzysztof Penderecki:
Polish Requiem; Dies Irae; Lacrimosa; Magnificat; Passion According to St.  
Luke; Psalms of David; Stabat Mater; Te Deum; Veni Creator

Of these, I've only heard St. Luke's Passion.  Like the other KP pieces I've  
heard, this is a rather dark work.  Also probably not suitable for amatuer  
performers, if that's what you had in mind.  But if you want some very original  
music for your mass, give him a try.

Or for something *completely* different, try Diamanda Galas' `Plague Mass'.   
(Well, you did say modern, not `classical'.)  I'm not saying Galas is in the  
same league as Penderecki as a composer, but I can guarantee her performance  
will send chills down your spine.

*****

From: music@moravian.edu (Steve Heller)

Likewise, if you're looking for something more milktoast, you could
try John Rutter's "Requiem" (or A. Lloyd Webber's %) or works by John
Tavener (the modern, not the late, spelled slightly right)... Even old
Arvo Part could be considered...


From: David <davidu@space.mit.edu>

Try the works of John Rutter, especially the Requiem.  It is
simple music, but no less satisfying than, say, the Part Requiem.  The
problem may be in acquiring the recordings, as they are on Collegium,
which some record stores may not carry.

*****

From: David <davidu@space.mit.edu>

It seems as if a Mr. Morris has already recommended to you
Rutter's music.  Allow me to try again.  Give ear to Janacek's 
Glagolithic Mass, especially Mackerras on Supraphon (authentic) or
Shaw on Telarc (slightly Americanized).  This is powerful music,
although definitely NOT profound expression of faith in GOD.

*****

From: mgresham%dscatl.UUCP@mathcs.emory.edu (Mark Gresham)

One piece I can suggest is a setting of "O vos omnes" by
Rene Clausen (and you thought I was going to say Pablo Casals,
eh?). 


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