Guild's Songs of the Soul features the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus in a program centered around musical settings from or related to the spiritual poetry of St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), the great Spanish mystic poet and co-founder of the order of the Discalced Carmelites. Although St. John's poetic output is small, it has incredible power and is redolent with inherent mysticism, qualities that are attractive to composers of sacred music. However, for some reason the composition of musical settings to St. John's poetry ...
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Guild's Songs of the Soul features the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus in a program centered around musical settings from or related to the spiritual poetry of St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), the great Spanish mystic poet and co-founder of the order of the Discalced Carmelites. Although St. John's poetic output is small, it has incredible power and is redolent with inherent mysticism, qualities that are attractive to composers of sacred music. However, for some reason the composition of musical settings to St. John's poetry didn't get underway until the twentieth century, and one of the first composers to set it was Carlos Surinach in his Canciones del alma (1964). The four pieces of that set are used as signposts set up throughout this program of 13 tracks and all four stand out considerably from the rest, owing to their distinctiveness and sprightly use of rhythm. In between, two pieces by St. John's contemporary Tomás Luis de Victoria are heard, as is An den Geist, a setting by Swiss composer Carl...
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