Choral Masterpieces

Nicholas Tarling

doi:10.5771/9781442234536

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 Miss 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. The book is an easy and captivating read even if you are not a chorister.”

Choral Masterpieces: Major and Minor features short essays on over 28 works, from major masterpieces such as Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion to off-the-beaten path choral works such as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha and Frederick Delius’ A Mass of Life. Throughout, Tarling offers assessments that sparkle with unique insights and at the same time ground listener’s in the historical contexts of the work’s production and performance. Each work is transformed in Tarling’s able hands from musical work into a window into the mind and milieu of the composer.

Choral Masterpieces: Major and Minor mixes choral mainstays with works that demand revisiting. Choral singers and their audiences, as well as choral societies and their directions and promoters, will find ample food for thoughts in these meditations on the choral tradition.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2014
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4422-3452-9
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4422-3453-6
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 215
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Foreword No access
3. Acknowledgements No access
4. Introduction No access
Chapter One: Monteverdi’s Vespers No access Pages 1 - 6
Chapter Two: Bach’s St Matthew Passion No access Pages 7 - 12
Chapter Three: Bach’s Mass in B Minor No access Pages 13 - 18
Chapter Four: Handel’s Messiah No access Pages 19 - 32
Chapter Five: Mozart’s Requiem No access Pages 33 - 38
Chapter Six: Haydn’s The Creation No access Pages 39 - 44
Chapter Seven: Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis No access Pages 45 - 50
Chapter Eight: Schumann’s Paradise and the Peri No access Pages 51 - 56
Chapter Nine: Mendelssohn’s St Paul (Paulus) No access Pages 57 - 62
Chapter Ten: Mendelssohn’s Elijah No access Pages 63 - 68
Chapter Eleven: Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust No access Pages 69 - 76
Chapter Twelve: Berlioz’s The Childhood of Christ No access Pages 77 - 82
Chapter Thirteen: Rossini’s Little Solemn Mass No access Pages 83 - 86
Chapter Fourteen: Brahms’s A German Requiem No access Pages 87 - 92
Chapter Fifteen: Paine’s St Peter No access Pages 93 - 96
Chapter Sixteen: Liszt’s Christus No access Pages 97 - 104
Chapter Seventeen: Verdi’s Requiem No access Pages 105 - 112
Chapter Eighteen: Parry’s Prometheus Unbound No access Pages 113 - 118
Chapter Nineteen: Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha No access Pages 119 - 128
Chapter Twenty: Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius No access Pages 129 - 138
Chapter Twenty-one: Elgar’s Trilogy No access Pages 139 - 146
Chapter Twenty-two: Delius’s A Mass of Life No access Pages 147 - 152
Chapter Twenty-three: Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony No access Pages 153 - 158
Chapter Twenty-four: Janáček’s Glagolithic Mass No access Pages 159 - 164
Chapter Twenty-five: Hindemith’s When Lilacs Last No access Pages 165 - 170
Chapter Twenty-six: Tippett’s A Child of Our Time No access Pages 171 - 178
Chapter Twenty-seven: Britten’s War Requiem No access Pages 179 - 190
Chapter Twenty-eight: Messiaen’s The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ No access Pages 191 - 196
Conclusion No access Pages 197 - 198
Index No access Pages 199 - 214
About the Author No access Pages 215 - 215