Piece of the Week – 10/24/2014

This is probably my favorite piece by world-famous contemporary composer Eric Whitacre, composed for wind band or orchestra with optional choir. I hope you enjoy Equus.

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Pieces of the Week – 9/5&12/2014

Here are the 4th and 5th movements from Penderecki’s 3rd symphony. You may recognize the 4th from Scorsese’s Shutter Island.

Doesn’t the 5th movement sound like the hero’s racing against time but then makes it at the last second?
Now to balance the scale here’s the finale from John Rutter’s Gloria.

Piece of the Week – 7/25/2014

Continuing with the work of David Maslanka, here’s perhaps one of his most under-performed works, his Mass for soloists, chorus, and wind symphony. You can listen to it in its entirety here:

http://davidmaslanka.com/works/mass/

Pieces of the Week – 6/27 & 7/4/2014

I knew I had forgotten something last weekend. Once again, here are two pieces of the week. We’ll start with Morten Lauridsen’s gorgeous work, Lux Aeterna

Next here’s a piece by the great brass band master Paul Lovatt-Cooper, Immortal.

Piece of the Week – 6/20/2014

Continuing with the work of Karl Jenkins, here’s a look at the second installment of his Adiemus project, “Cantata Mundi.”

Cantus – Song of the Spirit

Chorale V

Chorale VI and Cantus – Song of Aeolus

Chorale VII

 

Piece of the Week – 6/13/2014

Karl Jenkins is a Welsh composer and one of the foremost in the United Kingdom. This piece was originally written for strings, percussion, and ethnic voices as “Cantilena” for his Adiemus project. Several years later, he reworked it for brass band and men’s choir with the secondary title “Ysbryd Y Mynyddoedd.” Here’s the English translation:

In the mountains

There winter is white as forgiveness;
There autumn is red as the truth;
There summer is golden as generosity;
There spring is as steel;

Here the streets are grey with pollution;
Here the waters of rivers flow black;
Here wealth is bitter as poison;
Here there is blood on the wind.

Spirit of the mountains, have mercy, have mercy!

Here morning is green as a promise;
Here days are quiet as faith;
Here the night is starry as hope;
Here the winds are free;

Spirit of the mountains, fly free, fly free! rejoice, rejoice!

Piece of the Week – 3/7/2014

This week’s Piece of the Week is an example of a “Secular Requiem,” a concept new to the 20th Century. This is the one written by Dmitri Kabalevsky an even 20 years after the height of World War II.