Lux Aeterna

Hilary Finch, The London Times
   [Lux Aeterna] is a classic of new American choral writing. In this light-filled continuum of sacred texts, old world structures and new world spirit intertwine in a cunningly written score, at once sensuous and spare.

Finding Joy in Themes of Loss

     Los Angeles Times, by Mark Swed, Times Music Critic     October 26th, 1999
   Morten Lauridsen's compulsively listenable "Lux Aeterna" was an instant hit when the Los Angeles Master Chorale premiered it in 1997. A recording by the chorus on a small local label (RCM Records) was nominated for a Grammy last year, and it still sells out of the record shops after a broadcast. People hear it, and they are moved.
   "Lux Aeterna" returned to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Sunday night, keeping company with Brahms' "A German Requiem," to open the Master Chorale's new season; and once again it worked its magic. Warm applause was given conductor Paul Salamunovich, his fine singers and his capable Sinfonia Orchestra. But the crowd erupted with contagious joy when Lauridsen bounded on stage for bows, then headed to the Tower Records booths in the lobby.
   Like the Brahms "German Requiem," Lauridsen's "Lux Aetema" is a piece about mourning. Both were written over the loss of a mother, both are searches for consolation. Both works pick and choose from biblical texts. His requiem a blessing of those who mourn, Brahms rewards suffering; the payoff for pages of gloomy music are moments of luminous intensity. Lauridsen's solace is light, and his music has a gentle radiance throughout.
   In many ways, "Lux Aeterna" is a sort of "German Requeim"-lite, in the healthy sense of that term — affirmation without all the 19th century guilt. Lauridsen — who is composer in residence of the Master Chorale, a longtime member of the USC composition faculty and a fixture in the world of modem choral music — has found a way to illuminate the Brahmsian glow with contemporary energy sources. He follows Brahms' model of refashioning old liturgical music, yet he does not sound archaic. The unembarrassed, gorgeous consonances of "Lux Aeterna" are immediately recognizable as coming from an American in the 1990s.
   The program notes proclaimed that "Lux Aeterna" reminds us that we'd forgotten to expect the wondrous from modem music, but, in fact, its importance is quite the opposite. This is music that has absorbed the wondrous from our century. It's unequivocal generosity of spirit, its unfussy ecstatic tone comes not from the past or rejection of the new but from an openness to modern music. It is hard to imagine this music existing without the permission given to be spiritually unconflicted — to say nothing of the sophisticated techniques with which to do so — by Messiaen, Morton Feldman, Henryk Górecki, John Tavener and many others of our era.

At Salamunovich's Farewell, It's a Night of Ecstatic Love

     Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed     April 23rd, 2001
The heart of the program was Morten Lauridsen's beaming "Lux Aeterna," which followed. The concert also marked the end of Lauridsen's six years as composer-in-residence, during which time he wrote music that magnified the Chorale's special resonance. "Lux Aeterna" is his largest and most important work for the Chorale, and the most beloved...  It is hard to identify exactly what it is about this calm, radiant music that has such an immediate effect on an audience. The blend of voices and the calm surety of the consonances are mesmerizing, to be sure. But something more profound comes into play, and I think it is the sense of well-being that his marvelous score exudes. Though a requiem for the composer's mother, it is music as much about life as it is the spirit. Gentle harmonies, in voices and instruments, seem to hover in the air of the concert hall, yet nonetheless make us feel grounded in the earth.

Los Angeles Master Chorale offers illuminating concert

     Pasadena Star-News, by Robert D. Thomas     April 18th, 1997
   Once in a while, a concert brings a listener up short. Last Sunday's concert by the Los Angeles Master Chorale at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was a case in point, an evening that was illuminating on several points.
   First, it demonstrated afresh the fact that a live performance beat a recorded one every time. Although the concert is going to be broadcast on KUSC April 27, no sound system -- however grand and/or sensitive -- will be able to match what we heard live, even in the muddy acoustics of the Pavilion.
   More importantly, the program validated a basic truth of concert going: season ticket holders have more fun. The program -- works by Francesco Durante and Joseph Haydn encasing the world premiere of "Lux Aeterna" by LAMC Composer-in-Residence Morten Lauridsen -- didn't have the flash that would have caused many people to run out and buy tickets. Season ticket holders, on the other hand, came because of the discipline enforced by purchasing a group of concerts.
   And oh, how they were rewarded, for this concert lovingly and emphatically pointed out once again that some of the finest contemporary music is being written in the choral music field. Lauridsen's 25-minute, five-movement work proved to be a moving, poignant piece, filled with lush, haunting melodies interspersed with moments of choral grandeur.
   The Master Chorale, conducted by Music Director Paul Salamunovich, performed the piece with a superb combination of crackling emotion and technical dexterity; the opening movement and the transition from "O Nata Lux" to "Veni, Sancte Spiritus" were particularly memorable.
   But in the end, it was the music itself that carried the evening. This is a piece that cries out to be heard again, and not just on a Master Chorale program. The Los Angeles Philharmonic or Pasadena Symphony should program "Lux Aeterna" as part of its subscription series sometime soon, if for no other reason than to open it up to new audiences.
   Finally, it's worthy noting that both Lauridsen and his fellow composer, Pasadena resident James Hopkins, teach at the University of Southern California. Although East Coase critics and Pulitzer Prize juries often think that the United States' western border follows the Chicago River, Lauridsen and Hopkins continue to enrich our lives with their first-rate choral music compositions, one of the many reasons to enjoy living in Southern California.

Unique Combinations Highlight Weekend Concerts

     Tribune (tribweb.com)     March 26th, 2002
Morten Lauridsen's "Lux Aeterna" (Perpetual Light) was the high point of the concert. The half-hour work is a requiem to an unorthodox collection of texts that includes no Day of Judgement, for example. The composer's sensitivity to words and facility with the rhetoric to signify them are combined with an agreeable harmonic language to create music that touches its audience.
   The Bach Choir sang superbly, especially in soft passages where its sounds gently filled the air. The final "Alleluia -- Amen" is challenging for the singers but was a delight for the audience.

'Promise of Living' is Unorthodox But Lively

     Houston Chronicle     November 19th, 2001
The intensity of music-making often was very captivating. That commitment propelled another featured piece, Lux Aeterna by California Morten Lauridsen, His music has been a sensation in the choral world in the past decade. O Magnum Mysterium, a short work premiered in 1994, has had thousands of performances and many recordings. In Lux Aeterna (1997), Lauridsen deftly balanced fresh sounds, a cosseting tonality and challenging passages of dissonance. The music obviously impressed Masterworks Chorus members. As they worked through the five movements, performed with organ accompaniment, their involvement became more intense and their singing more inspired. Under Johnson's leadership, time passed quickly in a work that clocks at approximately 27 minutes.

Performers Play Off Theme of 'Light'

     Lincoln Journal Star     April 30th, 2001
   Central to the concert was "Lux Aeterna" by Morten Lauridsen, who chairs the composition department at the University of Southern California School of Music in Los Angeles. The piece combines five historical church Mass and liturgy settings. Each mentions "light" in its text.
   The work's central a cappella movement, "O Nata lux de lumine," referred to Christ as the light born of the light of the world. The choirs sang with ravishing transparency. When the "Agnus Dei-Lux Aeterna" movement reached the "eternal light" text, it seemed as if the choir and orchestra opened the celestial doors, pouring their musical light onto the audience. A number in the crowd were seen openly weeping with the music's beauty.

American Record Guide Review

     Greenfield, American Record Guide, Sept/Oct 1998
   This program accomplished the impossible: it actually made me regret not being from Los Angeles so I could join the Master Chorale under Maestro Salamunovich's direction and spend my days singing Morten Lauridsen's music. Lauridsen, professor and chair of the composition department at USC, is also Composer-in-Residence of the chorale. He writes heart-felt, radiant, absolutely gorgeous music; and it delivered con amore here by everyone concerned.
   Lux Aeterna is a five-movement non-liturgical Requiem for choir and chamber orchestra that draws from the Mass, plus portions of the Te Deum, O Nata Lux, and Veni Sancte Spiritus. What a powerfully uplifting work it is. "Ave Maria" and "O Magnum Mysterium" are a cappella pieces full of long lines, arching suspensions, shimmering dissonances, and intense spiritual beauty. Lauridsen's work in the secular realm is represented by two song cycles: Les chansons des Roses, which employs five flower-inspired texts by Rainer Maria Rilke, and the five orchestrated Mid-Winter Songs inspired by the poetry of Robert Graves.
   I don't want to waste time stringing adjectives together. Suffice it to say this is all music straight from the heart. Emotions churn in warm, gentle ways, and you'd have to be a constipated, curmudgeonly old coot inside not to be moved by it! The choir and orchestra sound like they were deputized by the angels to bring this music to earth. RCM's sound is warm; and plush and the notes, once they stop babbling, are helpful. This will be on my Year's Best List for sure come January. I bet it makes yours too!

The Insider's Guide to Classical Recordings

     Jim Svejda
   This hypnotically beautiful album might almost be characterized as contemporary vocal music for people who don't think they like contemporary vocal music, for the first recording of the ravishing Lux Aeterna by the Los Angeles-based composer Morten Lauridsen demonstrates that it is possible for important contemporary music to speak directly to the heart.
   Composed in 1997 for the Los Angeles Master Chorale -- who, not surprisingly, performs the work as though it had been written for them -- Lux Aeterna is a rich, complex, intensely moving piece that people will be listening to for a long time to come. While the idiom is no more threatening than that of the English composer John Rutter, the music itself is of far greater substance and depth. The other works on the album are no less lovely, especially Les Chansons des Roses, which has a fair claim to being the finest Rilke setting yet made by an American composer. Paul Salamunovich extracts brilliant performances from his superbly drilled forces and the recorded sound is superb.    If you think that modern music is largely confined to the mindless delights of minimalism or incomprehensible noise, then this wonderfully human music will prove how wrong you are.

Review

     Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times
   Morten Lauridsen's compulsively listenable Lux Aeterna was an instant hit when the Los Angeles Master Chorale premiered it in 1997. A recording by the chorus on RCM Records was nominated for a Grammy and it still sells out of the record shops after a broadcast. People hear it and they are moved.

Lauridsen: 'Lux Aeterna,' Other Works

     The New York Times
   The life of a choral composer does not elicit much envy these days. Unless that composer is Morten Lauridsen, who not only enjoys the respect of music directors throughout America but also has at his disposal the Los Angeles Master Chorale, one of America's top vocal ensembles.
   On this CD, the Master Chorale performs five works by Mr. Lauridsen, three recorded for the first time. All receive mellifluous and devoted readings under the pointed direction of Paul Salamunovich.
   The album's title, "Lux Aeterna," comes from the 1997 work that opens the CD, but perpetual light shones on all the settings. Churls will insist that a quasi-pop sensibility mars Mr. Lauridsen's efforts, but such criticism ignores the music's potency. And though unabashed religiosity stands at the center of "Lux Aeterna," "Ave Maria" (1997) and "O Magnum Mysterium" (1994), all sung in Latin, a different sort of beauty characterizes "Les Chansons des Roses" (1993) and "Mid-Winter Songs" (1990), which use poetry for inspiration.
   The extroverted "Chansons des Roses," sung in French and based on five Rilke texts, focus on flowers. The more melancholy "Mid-Winter Songs," set to English words by Robert Graves, pay musical homage to the English Renaissance and Aaron Copland.
   As for the sound, the CD's spacious acoustics prove alternately grand and intimate.

Sound Worlds of Their Own

     
   Chants, medieval or modern, are in. Perhaps the busier we are, the simpler the music we seem to be drawn to. Perhaps we are trying to relax, to remember how music can be a form of prayer.
   The choral works of California-based composer Morten Lauridsen certainly have a soothing effect, but you could hardly call them plainchant. They are richly romantic in their chromatic shifts and the full use of the chorus, often subdivided into multiple parts.
   The "Lux Aeterna," a 1997 work that has become hugely popular, is really a mass for the dead, using an eclectic mix of words drawn from the Te Deum, the Requiem Mass and other sacred texts. In the first movement, the chorus sings over a strong bass line in the orchestral accompaniment that recalls the bass line of the Brahms "Requiem":  Both create a sense of doom and finality. The words themselves -- all on texts invoking light -- are almost murmured, as if by a large congregation, which creates a great gorgeous fabric of choral sound, glinting with frequent and unpredictable shifts in the close harmony. There is a sense of emotion that surges in great arches, in the tradition of Renaissance polyphony.
   ...It is a beautiful piece that creates a unique sound-world and pushes you, mysteriously, to the edge of tears.
   The Los Angeles Master Chorale, the descendant of the famous Roger Wagner Chorale, is simply stunning -- as precise and fine a large choir as any in the world, I'd venture -- and it is captured in the ideally resonant acoustic of the Sacred Heart Chapel in Los Angeles. Four stars to RCM for the sound alone.

CD Review

     John Phillips Reviews, London
   This disc is my choral disc of the year!!! I cannot see how it could be bettered, both musically, performance and recording wise.  Although it is not available as yet in the UK, I urge you to get it from the U.S. (Amazon.com can supply it by return).  You will not regret the investment.
   I first heard O Magnum Mysterium (of half of it, I now realise) on a Radio Four programme over Christmas, and being initially impressed with the work, started to hunt it down.  Having received the disc and listened to the remainder of the works on the disc, I was completely bowled over...
   Lux Aeterna was inspired by the Brahms Requiem, although there is little similiarity in the two pieces, except for the sense of dedication and the use of slow, deep introduction a la Brahms.  There are five movements:  Introitus, In Te Domine Speravi, O Nata Lux, Veni Sanctus Spiritus, and Agnus Dei-Lux Aetnera.  These form roughly the movements of a normal Requiem, and the devotional character is well to the front, with soaring choral lines which make the hairs on the back of your neck rise up in unison.
   With Les Chansons des Roses from 1993, we come to song settings of texts by Rainer Maria Rilke, and the last one "Dirait-on" has become very popular in its own right in the U.S.  These settings are for chorus only, with the last one being supplied with piano accompaniment by the composer.
   Ave Maria is a one movement work written as a 70th birthday gift to the conductor, and is a serene setting of the religious text.  I would have been honoured to receive such a gift, and the performance from the choir is absolutely superb.
   Mid-Winter Songs are settings of poems of Robert Graves, taken from his collected works, each having the theme of winter.  The work has appeared in various guises, originally for mixed choir and piano, which was written in 1981.   The first orchestral version, written in 1983, was supplanted by the current version, written in 1990 for the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
   Finally we come to O Magnum Mysterium, premiered in 1994 by the current artists.  This superb 5½ minute work for solo choir is worth the whole price of the disc.  This rounds off an absolutely enthralling disc which I can't imagine any music lover not being moved by.
   The Los Angeles Master Chorale with their conductor Paul Salamunovich is made up of some 90 singers, most of whom seem to be fairly young, judging from the fresh, exciting sounds that they make.  Apparently, they are the main choir appearing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and I cannot understand why they are still to release their first disc in the U.K.
   This superb disc is a must -- I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Bel Canto Program Rooted in Passion

     Milwaukee Journal Sentinel     March 12th, 2001
"Lux Aeterna," constructed of five movements that are performed without pause, is filled with glorious choral writing.   Lush harmonies, soaring melodic lines and colorful orchestral writing give this piece its considerable power. Lauridsen also manages some remarkable text painting, particularly in the "Veni Sanctus Spiritus" movement of the piece.

March Festival Chorale Concert Worth Every Penny, and Then Some

     The Holland Sentinel     March 23rd, 2000
In a concert that would have cost an average of $20 elsewhere, the audience heard "Overture to Nabucco" by the West Shore Symphony as well as two major choral pieces never before performed in Holland -- "Lux Aeterna," a very melodic and uplifting religious piece by Morten Lauridsen, and Verdi's famous classical work, "Te Deum."
   The highlight of the program was without a doubt the performance of "Lux Aeterna." Written in 1997, the piece has been praised by choral groups that perform it. The five movements of the work contain references to light from various sacred Latin texts. The work opens and closes with the beginning and ending of the "Requiem Mass," with the middle three movements drawn respectively from the "Te Deum," "O Nata Lux" and "Veni Sanctus Spiritus."
   In program notes put together by West Shore Symphony conductor Murray Grover and Jim Bond, they wrote, "The music displays a range of emotion, from the quiet introspection of the Agnus Dei to the concluding joyful Alleluia, yet an amazing calmness and serenity always present."
   The program notes succintly summarized the performance of "Lux Aeterna" done by the three choral groups and the West Shore Symphony on Sunday; a performance made even more astonishing when considering that it was the fourth time in three months the groups performed the Lauridsen piece. The first three performances were presented at the Frauenthal Center for Performing Arts in Muskegon.

Chorale's Performance Matches Challenge of Music

     Virginian-Pilot & Ledger-Star     March 5th, 2000
The most satisfying music came in the second half, particularly in a piece by Los Angeles composer Morten Lauridsen, "Les Chansons des Roses" on texts by Rainer Maria Rilke, that alternated quick writing, demanding great precision, with broader sections that allow more depth in the sound.

Music Review

     Sacramento Bee     November 8th, 1998
The other major work on the program... was "Lux Aeterna" (Eternal Light) by California composer Morten Lauridsen, composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, which gave the work its premiere lsat season.
   Scored for chorus and organ, it is full of gorgeous writing for chorus, in a modern harmonic idiom that might be described as early (or mid-) 20th century. Lasting 29 minutes, it is in five essentially continuous movements beginning with the Introit of the Requiem Mass, employing three movements of the Te Deum and ending with the Agnus Dei and the prayer of the Introit (for eternal rest for the dead).
   The prayer for rest and mercy, the plea for union with Christ and light from the Holy Spirit are the essences of the work. The mood is transcendent, with the sopranos soaring in the prayer to Jesus and the music livelier in the invitation to the Spirit. Some of the loveliest choral passages are unaccompanied, with the organ coming in later. There's an Alleluia and a quiet Amen at the end. It's all beautiful music. Kendrick conducted it with care and feeling, and the chorus sang it with a reverent appreciation for the content and eloquence of the piece. At the organ, Janzen served it well, too.

Cathedral Acoustics Copacetic for Choral Cross-Ties Concert

     The Oregonian     April 29th, 1997
"Lux Aeterna" is a 20-minute work that, in alternate movements, centers on a gorgeous melodic and harmonic progression. It's a musical idea of piercing beauty.

The "Honored 10" from 1998:  O Nata Lux

Creator Magazine     1998
   Morten Lauridsen is perhaps the "hottest" composer going right now in the contemporary choral idiom. His O Magnum Mysterium has become a classic, and this one has all the earmarks of doing so as well. The vocabulary is not for everyone and it is perhaps more "concert" than "worship." All that aside, it is beautiful music. The piece is an excerpt from a larger work, and features the typical Lauridsen scoring -- divided parts, close scoring, "mystical" harmonies, and a slow-moving pace. The text celebrates Jesus as the Redeemer. This will take a very good choir and a director who is willing to spend the time to ensure that the notes all line up.

Holiday Concerts

     Newburyport Choral Society     December, 1999
O Nata Lux is a new Christmas work by Morten Lauridsen, a Califonia composer of great distinction. It is perhaps the finest new work for chorus written in the nineties.

Chorus hits high note with offerings for new season

     Daily Bruin, John Mangum     October 20th, 1999
The program features Johannes Brahms' colossal and inspiring "German Requiem" ... and Morten Lauridsen's "Lux Aeterna," a work that may be one of the most successful choral works written in the last part of the 20th century.
   "The concert pairs one of the most beloved pieces of all time with a new sacred work," said Lauridsen, who is the Master Chorale's composer-in-residence. "'Lux Aeterna' was written for Paul, who is one of the world's great experts in Gregorian Chant. This is his 50th year as music director of the St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church choir. The music is really the fiber of his being, and I wrote it for him, tapping into his vast experience."
   "Lux Aeterna," whose title means "perpetual light," draws on five different religious sources for its Latin text, bringing them together into a unified work of great beauty and communicative power. Lauridsen is justly proud of its success - one example he cites was a request from a local radio station for 300 signed copies of the Master Chorale's recording of the work to help drum up business during a pledge drive. "They were gone in 20 minutes," Lauridsen recalled. "I ended up signing 1,700 copies for the drive, and, on that one CD, they raised over $100,000."
   Even in Lauridsen's own body of work, "Lux Aeterna" stands out. "It really says something about the power of art to reach out and touch people," Lauridsen said. "There's not another work like it that I know of. It's a new, contemporary sacred work that people have really responded to."
   The season, which continues through May 7, includes two other works by Lauridsen: "Chansons des Roses" on a special Valentine's program (Feb. 13, 2000), and "Madrigali" as part of a concert that pairs 20th-century works alongside music from the 15th and 16th centuries by Monteverdi and Gesualdo (March 11, 2000).
   "The people who come to the opening concert, with two wonderful soloists in the Brahms, are in for an extraordinary evening of first-rate choral singing," Lauridsen said.
   No one would expect anything less.