Oooh. We've done a couple of Lauridsen pieces in my church choir, and not
only are they gorgeous, they're very singable. They're such a joy to sing,
and they feel so good when you're singing them.
My pet peeve is organists (not all of them - I know of a couple of
exceptions) who write sacred choral music. While much of the music is
interesting from a theoretical standpoint, and even pleasant (or better) to
listen to, with many of these composers, there's a complete lack of
understanding of how the voice works. We did a piece of music a couple of
years ago where the altos had to sing three pages of music pianissimo, all
lying below middle C, then jump up and double the sopranos, having moved all
the way up to piano, from the C to E-flat above. While it's theoretically
possible for church choir altos to sing above the C above middle C, and even
to sing piano in that register, it doesn't really work well to do so under
those circumstances. It was a gorgeous piece of music, but I hope I never
have to sing it again!
Lee Morgan
Mezzo-soprano
-----Original Message-----
From: thomas mark montgomery [mailto:thomas8@t...]
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2001 11:12 PM
Cc: vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [vocalist] Modern composers who do and who don't understand
the voice
Tonight my listening pleasure was a composer who writes beautifully for
voices even though he has written hardly any solo vocal music. If you
don't have the Morten Lauridson 'Lux Aeterna' CD, you should do yourself a
favor and purchase it. Lush choral music superbly performed by the Los
Angeles Master Chorale, Paul Salamunovich, conductor (RCM 19705).
Mark Montgomery
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