Arnold Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden (Peace on Earth), set for double chorus a cappella, is through-composed and conceived on a symphonic scale.
Composition History
Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms were commissioned by Chichester Cathedral in West Sussex, England, for the 1965 Chichester Festival.
Composer Biography
Charles Ives, a contemporary of Schoenberg, was a unique American composer who produced several psalm settings as an organist in New York during the early part of his compositional career in the 1890s.
Compositional Technique
Maurice Duruflé's Requiem, his most successful work, combines Gregorian melody with modal harmonies and polyphonic choral setting.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Many works on this album, from Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei to Arnold Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden, express the anxiety of their time while also offering glimpses of hope and peace.
Historical Context
This recording originated from a public radio broadcast on September 11, 2002, reflecting on the events in America one year prior and the broader causes of 20th-century conflict.
Composition History
Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei is a choral setting of the mass text, re-fashioned some thirty years after its original form as the Adagio for Strings, which began as part of his string quartet Op.11.
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