Lux Aeterna (Lauridsen)
Lux Aeterna is a five-movement choral work by the US composer Morten Lauridsen from 1997. It is written for four to seven-part mixed choir and chamber orchestra; a performance lasts around 25 minutes. The instrumentation of the chamber orchestra consists of a flute , an oboe , a clarinet in A, a bassoon , two horns , a bass trombone and strings . Alternatively, there are also two versions with organ or piano accompaniment .
The five movements are each underlaid with different liturgical texts with reference to the "eternal light" (lat. Lux æterna ). In addition, the corner movements Introitus and Agnus Dei / Communio are borrowed from the liturgical funeral mass , which led to the interpretation that Lauridsen had created a quasi- requiem analogous to the German Requiem by Johannes Brahms , which gives hope and consolation (but not only for the bereaved, as Brahms intended). The three middle movements are also based on the idea of the Trinity , with liturgical hymns of praise for the "Father" ( In te, Domine, Speravi , 2nd movement), the "Son" ( O nata lux , 3rd movement) and the "Saint." Spirit "( Veni, Sancte Spiritus , 4th movement).
The first movement sets the introit from the liturgical mass for the dead, the Requiem , to music and introduces the thematic material that is further processed throughout the composition; the themes emerge from the various church modes. In the second movement, excerpts from the Te Deum are linked with a verse from Psalm 111 ( Beatus vir ). The third movement is set a cappella without instrumental accompaniment and sets the hymn of praise from the feast of the transfiguration of the Lord to music . The fourth movement is the text of the Pentecost sequence , it is in a five-part rondo form . The fifth and last movement finally refers again to the Requiem by combining the two final movements from the funeral mass - the Agnus Dei and the text of Communio Lux aeterna . After a short appended Alleluia smooth finished Amen the work.
Stylistically, Lauridsen's setting of the Christmas hymn O Magnum Mysterium , which was created in 1994 in the same period, is similar.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Lux Aeterna on the website of the San Francisco choral society, (English) accessed on November 10, 2016