British composer Peter Dickinson manages something very rare among composers of concert music who use popular idioms. He is neither setting popular music with orchestral instruments nor adapting its materials to concert-music idioms. Instead, he maintains the expressive content of the popular traditions he employs but incorporates it into larger structures in a variety of ways. Sample the Agnus Dei (track 4) from the impressively grim Mass of the Apocalypse, composed in 1984, where a bluesy vibraphone floats above a choir ...
Read More
British composer Peter Dickinson manages something very rare among composers of concert music who use popular idioms. He is neither setting popular music with orchestral instruments nor adapting its materials to concert-music idioms. Instead, he maintains the expressive content of the popular traditions he employs but incorporates it into larger structures in a variety of ways. Sample the Agnus Dei (track 4) from the impressively grim Mass of the Apocalypse, composed in 1984, where a bluesy vibraphone floats above a choir intoning the words in a hymn-like setting. The combination is as intuitive as it is original. The most common referent from the vernacular world is jazz, which is deployed most heavily in the "Commentary" movements of the 11-part Larkin's Jazz (1989). The work is an homage to British poet Philip Larkin, a passionate jazz fan, and it has a unique structure. There are four Larkin poems, each of which has its own independent prelude that sets the mood. The poem is read, with only a...
Read Less
Add this copy of Mass of Apocalypse / Larkin's Jazz / Five Forgerie to cart. $32.47, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Naxos.