Morten Lauridsen
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. He was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale
Los Angeles Master Chorale
The Los Angeles Master Chorale is a professional chorus in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1964 by Roger Wagner to be one of the three original resident companies of the Music Center of Los Angeles County...
(1994–2001) and has been a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than 30 years.
Biography
Lauridsen was born February 27, 1943, in Colfax, WashingtonColfax, Washington
Colfax is the county seat of Whitman County, Washington, United States.The population was 2,805 at the 2010 census.It is situated amidst wheat-covered hills in a valley at the confluence of the north and south forks of the Palouse River. U.S...
to a family of immigrants from Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. He was raised in Portland, Oregon, where his mother worked as a bookkeeper and his father was with the United States Forest Service. His mother was a pianist who had played in her high school dance band, and Lauridsen developed a love for music at an early age, by listening to her play swing jazz and singing to him. At age eight he started playing the piano, and a couple of years later learned to play the trumpet. He studied composition with Ingolf Dahl
Ingolf Dahl
Ingolf Dahl was a German-born American composer, pianist, conductor, and educator.-Biography:Born in Hamburg, Germany to a German father and a Swedish mother, his birth name was Walter Ingolf Marcus. He studied with Philipp Jarnach at the Hochschule für Musik Köln...
, Halsey Stevens
Halsey Stevens
-Life:Halsey Stevens was born in Scott, New York and educated at Syracuse University and the University of California, Berkeley. He studied with William Berwald at Syracuse and with the composer Ernest Bloch at Berkeley....
, Robert Linn
Robert Linn (composer)
Robert Linn was an American composer and an educator at the University of Southern California. His notable students there included Morten Lauridsen....
, and Harold Owen at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
in the 1960s.
Compositions
Lauridsen's choral compositions, including seven choral cycles and a series of sacred a cappella motets, are featured regularly in concerts worldwide. In particular, O Magnum Mysterium, Contre Qui, Rose and Dirait-on (from Les Chansons des Roses), and O Nata Lux (from Lux Aeterna) have become popular items in the choral repertoire.His musical language is influenced by chant, as well as masters through the ages, such as Josquin, Palestrina, Gesualdo, Monteverdi, Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, and Duruflé. The influence of chant, though evident in the linear construction of many of his works, is particularly clear in Lux Aeterna. A chant-like melody, first stated by the strings, unfolds and becomes the basis for the entire five-movement work. Lauridsen also cites the American musical theater as an influence, drawing upon this sound especially for his setting of James Agee's "Sure on this Shining Night." Some of Lauridsen's signature sounds include pervasive use of the second scale degree, (the second note of the key in which the composition is written) and his Madrigali utilize the "fire chord." In search of a single sonority to connect each song in the cycle, Lauridsen settled on a minor chord with an added ninth, a sound which he named the "fire chord."It returns throughout the work and is especially poignant in its single use on the word "voi" (Italian for "you") in the final song, "Se per havervi oime."
The musicologist and conductor Nick Strimple, in discussing Lauridsen's sacred music, described him as "the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic, (whose) probing, serene work contains an elusive and indefinable ingredient which leaves the impression that all the questions have been answered ... From 1993 Lauridsen's music rapidly increased in international popularity, and by century's end he had eclipsed Randall Thompson as the most frequently performed American choral composer."
Lauridsen's works have been recorded on over 100 CDs, three of which have received Grammy nominations. His principal publishers are Peermusic (New York/Hamburg) and Peer's affiliate, Faber Music (London).
A recipient of numerous grants, prizes and commissions, Lauridsen chaired the Composition department at the USC Thornton School of Music
USC Thornton School of Music
The University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, founded in 1884 and dedicated in 1999, is one of the premier music schools in the United States...
from 1990–2002, founded the School's Advanced Studies Program in Film Scoring, and is currently Distinguished Professor of Composition.
In 2006, Morten Lauridsen was named an "American Choral Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007, he received the National Medal of Arts
National Medal of Arts
The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. It is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the...
from the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
in a White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
ceremony, "for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide."
In 2007, Morten Lauridsen was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
- founded in 1495 and one of the United Kingdom's oldest universities - for services to choral music.
In 2008, Morten Lauridsen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Rowan University
Rowan University
Rowan University is a public university in Glassboro, New Jersey, USA with a satellite campus in Camden, New Jersey. The school was founded in 1923 as Glassboro Normal School on a twenty-five acre tract of land donated by the town...
in Glassboro, New Jersey during a concert in his name. Under instruction of Z. Randall Stroope
Z. Randall Stroope
Z. Randall Stroope , a renowned American composer, conductor, and lecturer, has written over 95 pieces; among his most-famous works are the Lamentations of Jeremiah, The Pasture, I Am Not Yours, and Inscription of Hope. His compositions sell more than 200,000 copies each year...
, The Rowan University Concert Choir performed a number of Lauridsen's works, several of which were accompanied by the composer. University faculty Marian Stieber and Jon Garrison
Jon Garrison
Jon Garrison is a successful American operatic tenor who has been performing in locations around the world since 1965. He first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in 1974, in a secondary role in the company premiere of Death in Venice, which featured Sir Peter Pears...
performed "A Winter Come", also accompanied by Lauridsen.
Vocal works
- Ave Dulcissima Maria (2004, written for the Harvard Glee ClubHarvard Glee ClubThe Harvard Glee Club is a 60-voice, all-male choral ensemble at Harvard University. Founded in 1858 in the tradition of English and American glee clubs, it is the oldest collegiate chorus in the US. The Glee Club is part of the Holden Choruses of Harvard University, which also include the...
) - Ave Maria (1997)
- A Winter Come (on poems by Howard Moss)
- I. When Frost Moves Fast
- II. As Birds Come Nearer
- III. The Racing Waterfall
- IV. A Child Lay Down
- V. Who Reads By Starlight
- VI. And What Of Love
- Les Chansons des Roses (1993) (settings of poems by Rainer Maria RilkeRainer Maria RilkeRené Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...
)- I. En Une Seule Fleur
- II. Contre Qui, Rose
- III. De Ton Rêve Trop Plein
- IV. La Rose Complète
- V. Dirait-on
- Chanson Eloignee (Rilke)
- Lux AeternaLux AeternaLux Aeterna is an album by Dave Fitzgerald. Released in 1997.This is the second solo album from flute and saxophone player Dave Fitzgerald who was a founding member of Iona. Recorded partly in the studio, and partly in the St...
(1997)- I. Introitus
- II. In Te, Domine, Speravi
- III. O Nata Lux
- IV. Veni, Sancte Spiritus
- V. Agnus Dei
- I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes
- Madrigali: Six "Firesongs" on Italian Renaissance Poems
- I. Ov'è, Lass', Il Bel Viso?
- II. Quando Son Piu Lontan
- III. Amor, Io Sento L'alma
- IV. Io Piango
- V. Luci Serene e Chiare
- VI. Se Per Havervi, Oime
- Mid-Winter Songs (1980) (on poems by Robert GravesRobert GravesRobert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...
)- I. Lament for Pasiphaë
- II. Like Snow
- III. She Tells Her Love While Half Asleep
- IV. Mid-Winter Waking
- V. Intercession in Late October
- NocturneNocturneA nocturne is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night...
s (2005)- I. Sa Nuit d'Été
- II. Soneto de la Noche
- III. Sure on this Shining Night
- IV. Epilogue: Voici le soir (added in 2008)
- O Come, Let Us Sing Unto the Lord
- O Magnum MysteriumO Magnum MysteriumO Magnum Mysterium is a responsorial chant from the Matins of Christmas. A number of composers have reworked the chant into a contemporary setting; the settings by Byrd, Victoria, Gabrieli, Palestrina, Poulenc, Judith Bingham, Harbison, La Rocca, Mäntyjärvi, Pierre Villette, Morales, Lauridsen and...
(1994) - Ubi Caritas et Amor
- Where Have the Actors Gone
- Cuatro Canciones Sobre Poesias de Federico Garcia Lorca
External links
- MortenLauridsen.com Personal website
- Peermusic Classical: Morten Lauridsen Composer's Publisher and Bio
- Discography
Interviews
- Morten Lauridsen interview by Bruce Duffie