Tracks from our recent organ and choral releases

2024 AAM and AGO Playlist

LOUPRETTE. BACH: Clavier-Übung III. The Pedal Settings

BWV 552/1 Praeludium pro Organo pleno

The Lord's My Shepherd - Solos for Treble

Geoffrey Burgon - Nunc Dimittis

MYTHS CONTESTED: J. S. Bach, The Contest between Phoebus and Pan, BWV 201 - Trevor Weston, A New Song

Bach BWV 201, Recit: "Wie, Midas, bist du toll?"

When composing Mass of the Eternal Flame, my first Mass, I kept remembering my parish choir in Latvia, which I directed for ten years. Whatever songs of praise and worship, repentance or thanksgiving we sang, the vivid experience and understanding of the text by each singer was always prominent. In this way, my Mass was born. It is inspiring for me to know that in Houston, Texas there is also a choir with faith in God in their hearts and a true passion for expressing the Good News through music, as well as conductor Robert Simpson and organist, Daryl Robinson, whose musicianship has inspired many over the years. My sincere gratitude to them for encouraging me to write my first Mass!

Sincerely,
Eriks Esenvalds
Riga, Latvia

Mass of the Eternal Flame: New Music by Ēriks Ešenvalds & Rachel Laurin

Rachel Laurin: Diptych, Op. 107

Ēriks Ešenvalds: O Salutaris Hostia

American composer Jeremy Beck “knows the importance of embracing the past while also going his own way. … [In] Beck’s forceful and expressive sound world … the writing is concise in structure and generous in tonal language, savouring both the dramatic and the poetic.”  — Gramophone

The Acis release of Jeremy Beck’s REQUIEM for mixed chorus and string orchestra is the artistic culmination of a multi-year project, one that was interrupted but also fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic. For it was the isolation and space created by the pandemic that allowed Beck to drive his earlier work on the REQUIEM to its conclusion in 2019.

A Requiem (or a Requiem Mass) is also known as a Mass for the Dead. It is a Mass of the Catholic Church that may be used during a funeral for an individual or a group of people. The title comes from the opening words of the Latin text, Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine (“Grant them eternal rest, O Lord”). Outside of a liturgical context, the words and form of the Requiem have inspired composers to create concert works in this genre, composers as diverse as Mozart, Verdi, Ligeti, and Christopher Rouse. Certain of these works, like the Rouse and Britten’s War Requiem (which inspired Rouse), juxtapose the traditional Latin text with other writings. But whether with additional texts or not, these works all come from a place of mourning, in remembrance of losses due to war, other human cruelty, or natural occurrence.

Beck explains his motivation for his REQUIEM:

“One sometimes reaches a point as a composer when the music one imagines suggests a larger form, something of greater artistic consequence. Taking my cue more from earlier composers, as my piece unfolded, I was also conscious of the sacred choral music of Arvo Pärt and Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Choir, a twentieth-century choral masterpiece. These two composers somehow found modern musical languages that were purposefully subdued, yet ever powerful and moving in their seeming restraint. In light of all of this history, I found the path to my own Requiem. It is without dedication, but is of its time.”

Jeremy Beck: Requiem

03 Jeremy Beck: Requiem: Tuba mirum

Independent Classical from Acis

emerging talent  |  award-winning artists  |  mindful design