Choral masterpieces : major and minor / Nicholas Tarling.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tarling, Nicholas, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Choral music.

Choral singing--History.

Choral singing.

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 215 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland ; London, United Kingdom : Rowman & Littlefield, [2014]

Summary:

In Choral Masterpieces: Major and Minor, historian Nicholas Tarling surveys the landscape of choral works, some standard masterpieces that are commonly performed by choruses around the world, others deserving a second, closer look. As noted in the foreword by Uwe Grodd, music director of the Auckland Choral Society, this work "is a collection of essays about a number of outstanding works, including Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Britten's War Requiem, but he also invites attention to lesser masterpieces. If the choral movement, which includes both singers and listeners, is to survive, new works must be created and repertory expanded. ... [It] is an easy and captivating read even if you are not a chorister." This book features short essays on over twenty-eight works, from major masterpieces such as Handel's Messiah and Bach's St Matthew Passion to off-the-beaten-path choral works such as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha and Frederick Delius's A Mass of Life. Throughout, Tarling offers assessments that sparkle with unique insights and at the same time ground listeners in the historical contexts of the work's production and performance. Each work is transformed in Tarling's able hands from a musical work into a window into the mind and milieu of the composer. Choral Masterpieces mixes choral mainstays with works that demand revisiting. Choral singers and their audiences, as well as choral societies and their directors and promoters, will find ample food for thought in these meditations on the choral tradition. Nicholas Tarling was a professor of history at the University of Auckland for nearly thirty years. A specialist in the history of Southeast Asia, he has published extensively on the region's history and culture. As a music aficionado, he has programmed broadcasts on opera for Radio New Zealand, reviews regularly for Opera magazine, prepares and conducts pre-concert talks, and writes concert program notes. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Monteverdi's Vespers 1

2 Bach's St Matthew Passion 7

3 Bach's Mass in B Minor 13

4 Handel's Messiah 19

5 Mozart's Requiem 33

6 Haydn's The Creation 39

7 Beethoven's Missa Solemnis 45

8 Schumann's Paradise and the Peri 51

9 Mendelssohn's St Paul (Paulus) 57

10 Mendelssohn's Elijah 63

11 Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust 69

12 Berlioz's The Childhood of Christ 77

13 Rossini's Little Solemn Mass 83

14 Brahms's A German Requiem 87

15 Paine's St Peter 93

16 Liszt's Christus 97

17 Verdi's Requiem 105

18 Parry's Prometheus Unbound 113

19 Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha 119

20 Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius 129

21 Elgar's Trilogy 139

22 Delius's A Masso of Life 147

23 Vaughan Williams's A Sea Symphony 153

24 Janácek's Glagolithic Mass 159

25 Hindemith's When Lilacs Last 165

26 Tippett's A Child of Our Time 171

27 Britten's War Requiem 179

28 Messiaen's The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ 191.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781442234932

1442234938

9781442234529

1442234520

OCLC:

868397808