This is a virtuoso piece of work in several respects. Composer Michael Finnissy was commissioned to write four a cappella works for the Choir of St. John's College and not only fulfilled but expanded upon that commission, writing pieces that comment upon works already in the choir's repertory. The four works -- John Taverner's Dum transisset sabatum, Thomas Tallis' Videte miraculum, Bach's cantata Herr Christ, der einige Gottessohn, and Michael Tippett's Plebs angelica -- are not presented in their original forms, but some ...
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This is a virtuoso piece of work in several respects. Composer Michael Finnissy was commissioned to write four a cappella works for the Choir of St. John's College and not only fulfilled but expanded upon that commission, writing pieces that comment upon works already in the choir's repertory. The four works -- John Taverner's Dum transisset sabatum, Thomas Tallis' Videte miraculum, Bach's cantata Herr Christ, der einige Gottessohn, and Michael Tippett's Plebs angelica -- are not presented in their original forms, but some of them receive double treatments from Finnissy in the form of "doubles," "commentaries," or an "alternativo" on the organ. The whole falls into a structure pertaining to the life of Christ, resulting in an intricate but wholly accessible triple set of commentaries. The whole idea would have felt very familiar to Taverner and Tallis, and probably to Bach as well. Finnissy departs from his models to varying degrees, maintaining the general mood of the original while adding difficult...
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