CHORAL MUSIC BY GRAHAM LACK
CQ2824 Refugium , for SATB Choir (divisi), Organ and 3 percussionists (see instrument list).
Texts by Petar Hektorovic taken from inscriptions in the courtyard of his villa Tvrdalj in the town of Stari Grad on the island of Hvar (Croatia). Six short compact movements, with percussion prelude and organ and percussion postlude. Duration: 35 minutes. Latin and Italian texts. See background note. Difficulty level 3-4. Rehearsal piano accompaniment provided. See sample pages. Listen to excerpts from a live concert recording by the via-nova-chor-München (Florian Helgath, Director), in the Herz-Jesu-Kirche, Munich, 7 March, 2010:
1. Fede e Realta
2. Nihil occultum
2. Heu Fugiunt
3. Respice quod salvantCQ2824 Vocal score with rehearsal piano reduction, 44 pp. $17.00. CQ2824A Organ score with percussion cues, $8.75. CQ2824B Conductor's full score (11" x 17"), $27.50. CQ2824C Percussion particell (includes all instruments), set of three copies $12.00.
"REFUGIUM is an effective and highly idiomatic work that manages to harness the energy
of the voices, the organ and a small battery of percussion. The libretto is original, drawing
successfully on sacred mottos within a secular context. We hope to premiere more of Mr.
Lack's works soon." — David Swinson, Director of Music, Trinity Boys School, London.
CQ2914 The Legend of St. Wite, for Soprano solo, and SAA solo trio (or treble/ women's chorus) and string quartet, or string orchestra.
Duration 9'17". Difficulty level: strings, 3+; vocal, 2. This work received an award from the BBC and was premiered on BBC Radio in 2009. With music and cryptic lyrics by the composer, the work memorializes three famous people who lie buried in the parish church of Whitchurch Canonicorum, England: Admiral Sir George Somers of Bermuda and Jamestown (1609) fame; Georgi Markov, the Bulgarian writer assassinated by (probably) the KGB; and Saint Wite, the Saxon hermit or anchoress martyred by the Danes in 831. The chorus part is a simple refrain, and the work should be easily performable by younger as well as older choirs along with a professional level string quartet or ensemble. It provides a charming opporunity for historical exploration as well as musical excellence. A very unusual piece.
See sample pages. | Listen to an (excerpt) mp3 recording. CQ2914 (full Score), 20 pp. $6.95 CQ2914A (vocal score), 8 pp. $1.85 CQ2914A1-A4 (string parts; Vn 1, Vn 2, Vla, Vc & opt. Cb), $10.00
REVIEW: "The legend of St. Wite is constructed along impressively clever harmonic lines. The choir, the soloist and the strings endow the work with life both epic and sublime. If one closes one's eyes, one can hear each element in the story as it is told." (Main-Echo, Aschaffenburg, Germany: 13 October, 2009)CQ2825 Hermes of the Ways, for double choir SSA/SAA a cappella, duration ca. 11 mins. Degree of difficulty 4. Commissioned and premiered by the Akademiska Damkören Lyran (Helsinki), Kari Turunen director. Text by Hilda Doolittle (1886-1961). See sample pages. Hermes, patron saint of ancient travellers, whose image was placed at crossroads, becomes for the Imagist poet the embodiment of modern man (or woman) "dubious, facing three ways" and fascinated by contradictory possibilities. 28 pp. $9.00.
CQ2715 Estraines, song cycle for SSATBB choir a cappella, in 4 octavos: choral version of a work commissioned by The King's Singers and premiered in March, 2009 (see a review in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung). The songs evoke the Renaissance custom of New Year gifts (Old French, estraines), and the poems selected elaborate on four different kinds of gifts, or giving and receiving scenarios. $1.75 each, or $7.00 for the set of 4. Degree of difficulty, 3+. CQ2715-1 Conceit: poem by Mervyn Peake (1911-1968). 7 pp. 2:50 duration | sample pages
listen to an excerpt from a recording by The King's Singers.
CQ2715-2 Day: poem by William Blake (1757-1827). 8 pp. 4:30 duration | sample pages
CQ2715-3 Ad Infinitum: poem by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963). 7 pp. 4:00 duration | sample pages
CQ2715-4 On Love: poem by Robert Herrick (1591-1674). 3 pp. 1:20 duration | sample pages
CQ2520 Sanctus, 12 voice mixed choir, a cappella, 18pp. $2.65 View sample pages
Dedicated to the Choir of Queens College, Cambridge, who gave its premiere performance, in Cologne (1990). This 12-voice setting (SSS:AAA:TTT:BBB) requires a proficient choir capable of sustaining long held chords. Range from low C in the bass to high B flat in the tenor and soprano, but the highest notes may be sung by solo voices. For liturgical or concert use. Duration approx. 6 mins. Listen to .mp3 files of a performance by the Chrismós Ensemble (Munich): (1) Opening - 0:58; (2) Selected passages - 2:14.Review of Sanctus in Oberbayerisches Volksblatt (July, 1990): A remarkable 12-voice composition in which classical forms combine with multi-colored surfaces and whispered litanies. . . . The result is one of rich poetical truth, occasionally submerging itself in a remote and mellow major tonality. Strict and austere, it is far-removed from sugary post-modernism.
Review by Reinhard Schulz in NMZ: Komplex polyphon gedachtes, flächiges Kirchenmusikstück. Sehr wirkungsvolles, in sich ruhendes Chorwerk. ( . . . a highly effective piece of church music . . . essentially tranquil . . .)
CQ2319 Four Lullabies, SATB, 13pp. $2.50 View Sample
1. Jesu, swete sone dere (14th cent. anonymous lyrics) Hear mp3 excerpt
2. At the manger Mary sings (lyrics by W.H.Auden) Hear mp3 excerpt
3. The World's Desire (lyrics by G.K.Chesterton) Hear mp3 excerpt
4. I sing of a maiden (15th cent. anonymous lyrics) Hear mp3 excerpt
Approx. 9 minutes duration for all four songs. These four short choral settings are in strict four-part style without any divisi passages. Direct in expression, they are designed to be sung a cappella by chamber choir and may even be performed by an SATB vocal quartet. They can also be performed with organ doubling the vocal parts. The Four Lullabies should make effective additions to a church service during the Christmas season but are intended as concert repertoire too. They may be given either singly or rendered as a cycle in the order published here. The musical language remains within an extended tonality, but admits some modal elements and contains a few unexpected harmonic shifts. Competent singers will cope easily with this challenge, and bring out accordingly the slight acerbity or sweetness of the harmonies whilst remaining attentive to the overall level of dissonance. [Revised from the original German edition].Review of Four Lullabies in Musical Opinion (November, 1991): Here is a composer with a sure understanding of timbres and the experience to know how to say what he wants to say in musical terms. A composer who delights in sound.
CQ2521 Two Madrigals for High Summer, SSATB a cappella, 13 pp. $2.50 View .pdf file of sample pages
A setting of lyrics by Rupert Brooke (1887-1915), the madrigalian style of these two new compositions draws strongly on English vocal music of the late Renaissance, a repertoire in which word painting and sensitive atmospheres play such an important role, and where SSATB forces are practically the norm. The compositional style is nevertheless more typical of the lyrical and romantic means of expression found in English music at the beginning of the twentieth century, although the degree of dissonance is pushed one notch further. The works were commissioned by the Sängerkreis München. Approx. duration: August, 2'30"; A Wind of Night, 5'10". Difficulty level, 4. Listen to an .mp3 recording of A Wind of Night by the Monteverdi Chor of Munich, directed by Konrad von Abel (live concert November, 2004, Klosterkirche St. Anna im Lehel, Munich).
If you would like to invite Graham Lack as a guest lecturer,
choral conductor or festival clinician, please download thisPDF flyer which you are welcome to copy in quantity.
