Composer Alexander Campkin has gained wide attention over the 2010s with choral works of moderate size that allow choirs to display their ensemble but don't require professional-quality singers. His style is entirely distinctive. The nearest comparison is the music of John Tavener; Campkin's music is slow-moving and tends to define a sound world at the beginning of a work and not alter it fundamentally, but he inflects Tavener's rather abstract musical language back in the direction of pictorialism, with compelling effect. ...
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Composer Alexander Campkin has gained wide attention over the 2010s with choral works of moderate size that allow choirs to display their ensemble but don't require professional-quality singers. His style is entirely distinctive. The nearest comparison is the music of John Tavener; Campkin's music is slow-moving and tends to define a sound world at the beginning of a work and not alter it fundamentally, but he inflects Tavener's rather abstract musical language back in the direction of pictorialism, with compelling effect. This is true even in the Missa Brevis, which the vOx Chamber Choir under director David Crown performs, according to historical precedent, interspersed with motets. Campkin indicates that during a celebration of mass at Oxford, "a bright ray of sunlight streamed through the windows, illuminating the altar, its direct beam piercing clouds of moving incense. This highly evocative, symbolic moment provided the inspiration for the Missa Brevis." The ray is represented by an unchanging...
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