Some of the most exciting music today is being written by a new generation of choral composers. Eric Whitacre, Tarik O’Regan, Nico Muhly, Gabriel Jackson and others have made their mark with strong individual voices and tremendous skill in writing for upper and mixed-voice choirs in both sacred and secular settings. Many of them were singers, some steeped in church music and others in different musical traditions. All are innovators and deserve to be heard.
The new choral music is certainly the music of our time. But many of its composers look back to older traditions as they continue to invent new ones. The spare stillness of chant can be found in many contemporary choral works, but there are also other elements at work. Tarik O’Regan is inspired by minimalism and jazz, while Gabriel Jackson’s music looks back (at times) to renaissance masters and composers from the Anglican choral tradition. Eric Whitacre is writing 21st century music that is rich with lush harmonies and melodies that hearken back to an older time, but without compromising his modern voice. Rock, pop and electronica are elements in Nico Muhly’s sound world, but so is the polished polyphony of Tudor composers. None of this music sounds derivative. Rather, it is adventurous and constantly thrilling.
The contemporary world meets the old in our featured recording, O Guiding Light. It includes six new works by Tarik O’Regan, Ruth Byrchmore and Roderick Williams, inspired by the poetry of two 16th-century Spanish mystics, St. Teresa of Ávila and St. John of the Cross. This deeply moving music is performed by one of the great choral ensembles, The Sixteen, and conducted by their music director, Harry Christophers.
by Craig Zeichner
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