SKU: PE.EP68578

ISBN 9790300759630. English.

Of Time and Passing (2016) is a cycle of three choral songs written specifically for the London-based ensemble, VOCES8, taking into consideration their versatilityand ability to beautifully intone a range of vocal colors with precision and grace.

The first song, I. Life, sets my translation of the poem A Vida by Brazilian poet Olavo Bilac (1865-1918), a poet I discovered while studying Brazilian Portuguese at the University of Michigan. I was drawn both to the simplicity of the text and to the possibilities of teasing out dual contrasting moods. In the beginning and end, this song explores a texture that is very much alive: wave-like contours, throbbing sounds, and plenty of flowing movement. Rising eighth-note motives in particular emphasize the fleetingness of life. But in the middle of the song, the listener is given a slowed-down atmosphere to savor life's beauty.

II. To Everything a Season capitalizes on VOCES8's ability to effectively interpret popular genres a cappella. This ancient text is taken from Ecclesiastes (dated around 300 B.C.) but I set it to a modern, rhythmically-regular and percussive pop-style idiom. Since popular music in whatever era is designed
to appeal to a specific ?present time?, it is by its very nature ephemeral, and therefore seemed an apt metaphor to evoke the transitory nature of seasons.

III. Into Your Hands, confines the writing into no more than four parts, often with octave unisons.This creates a more direct and word-focused setting in which the Psalmist?s urgent words are placed at the forefront. Largely homophonic, this song is at times chorale-like, at times madrigal-like,
finall y relinquishing it?s tension into peaceful rest, proclaiming ?You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God??

- Daniel Knaggs

SKU: HL.49044159

ISBN 9790001195577. 7.5x11.0x0.06 inches. German.

Er macht nicht nur als Braunschweiger Domkantor, Organist und leidenschaftlicher Musik- bzw. Gesangspadagoge von sich reden. Gerd-Peter Munden stellt mit seiner Vertonung des 126. Psalms unter Beweis, dass er auch als Komponist geistlicher (Chor)Musik Meisterhaftes hervorzubringen versteht. Den zur Gattung der Wallfahrtslieder zahlenden Psalm Wenn der Herr die Gefangenen Zions erlosen wird setzt Munden fur sechsstimmigen gemischten Chor (SSATBB) a cappella und verlangt den Ausfuhrenden dabei in nur 70 Takten einiges ab. Haufige Taktwechsel sowie eine reiche (nicht nur) dynamische Ausdruckspalette mit feinsten Abstufungen, die vom dreifachen Pianissimo bis zu dreifachen Fortissimo reicht und ruhige bis sehr lebhafte Passagen umfasst, verleihen diesem 5-minutigen Werk einen hochst ergreifenden Gestus.