Tudor and Jacobian Music
Choral music is my first love. Even though my voice broke in 1994, I still return to the emotional landscapes of Byrd, Tallis, Gibbons, Howells and Britten as a sort of home base for all of the music I...
View ArticleA Good Understanding
After absorbing the influence of centuries of English choral music on Nico Muhly's creative works, we thought it time to hear how this passion finds shape in Muhly's distinctive, contemporary style. In...
View ArticlePurcell, Blow and Contemporaries
Today, Henry Purcell and John Blow! Purcell is, I think, the last composer who was allowed to write such unstructured music; his long verse anthems and Te Deum are abstract, meandering and episodic...
View ArticleHowells and Stanford
I live for cheesy mid-century choral music. Today: Herbert Howells and Charles Villiers Stanford.Howells, who half-ironically styled himself after his Collegiate predecessors, knew his way around long,...
View ArticleExtreme Simplicity and Extreme Complexity
Today, Benjamin Britten and other 20th Century luminaries. Is there anything better than his Te Deum in C? If you can make it through "...whom that hast redeemed with thy precious blood" without losing...
View ArticleObsessive Choral with Nico Muhly
This Wednesday, Q2 Music begins its Winter Pledge Drive. In anticipation, we're revisiting two of our favorite guest-hosted shows on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday: Obsessive Choral, a survey of English...
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