Nico Muhly

In Bright Mass With Canons the canonical motifs are present right from the beginning and carry through almost every bar of the work.There are echoes of early English Choral writing and abstracted sections with flurries of sound interspersed with more Choral writing all in the most modern idioms. Contemporary American composer Nico Muhly is a prolific writer and arranger who at 32 is the youngest composer ever to have been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His oeuvre includes two operas and many solo pieces and works for small ensemble Orchestra and Chorus and he has collaborated with artists such as PhilipGlass Björk and Sigur Rós.In the December 2014 edition of Organists' Review Christopher Maxim writes that 'the vocal writing frequently evokes Renaissance polyphony' and 'the language is fresh and contemporary with much zest being added by the organ part.'

For Nine Male Voices And Orchestra-Luminous Body is a collaboration between Nico Muhly and Craig Lucas written in the period immediately following their narratively charged opera 'Two Boys'. Luminous Body is as a result abstract and poetic in gesture and form. The text interpolates among other things stylized versions of the teachings of Christ Buddha Mohammed and Plato; these are scrambled and re-contextualized and in a sense serve as background for the textures of the combination of nine male Voices and Orchestra.Part 1 introduces the chord structure that governs the entire piece and ends with the repeated words ?only your will is your own.?The second and third parts loosely dealing with the Devil and the importance of choosing one?s words are based on drones generated by the Voices and the strings; the constant (but slightly morphing) texture is meant to be meditative and vague. Muhly always wanted to set the Beatitudes and Craig paraphrased them beautifully here; the tenors intone the word ?blessed? over and over while the strings and winds reiterate the passacaglia from the opening of the piece. The fifth and final part is a series of proverbs. The Orchestra begins in a series of loose ecstatic drones which increase in intensity (?Make your own family!?) until you jump suddenly to the garden of Gethsemane where Christ was betrayed while his disciples slept. ?Why are you sleeping? Couldn?t you stay awake for one more hour?? he asks while the strings and winds lazily chant in the background.Luminous Body was premiered by The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Cantus.

Hymns For Private has been beautifully composed by Nico Muhly. This score and parts is the perfect addition to any wind ensembles collection that may be looking for something a little different.Hymns For Private was commissioned by Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Wigmore Hall London with the support of André Hoffmann President of the Fondation Hoffmann a Swiss grant-making foundation for the world premiere performances on April 13 14 18 and 19 2012.

POD-Nico Muhly's Stabat Mater Dolorosa for Soprano Baritone and Ensemble. Full score. My Stabat Mater is a very simply-constructed piece of music. I knew I wanted to write a duet a piece of religious music and something to go along with a bit of Birtwistle. My initial instinct was to base the piece on drones as Birtwistle's music has so very many notes but then I decided that an austere but ecstatic approach was the best to fill a coherent evening. I asked my friend Craig Lucas to paraphrase the Stabat Mater text - which describes the Virgin Mary weeping at the foot of the cross on which her son is crucified. The piece is organised byseparating each phrase of the text with a moment of silence with the exception of the last three which are joined with a frenzied chorale with improvised dynamics from the Harp Wind and Strings. - Nico Muhly Instrumentation: Soprano and Baritone voice Flute Clarinet in Bb Harp Violin Viola and Violoncello.

From the Golden Globe nominated movie The Reader comes three arrangemetns for Viola and Piano.The Piano takes the lead with the Viola instead providing drones shimmers and swells.

Nico Muhly's Fast Patterns for two Pianos adapted from the fourth movement of Patterns for solo organ. Commissioned by the London Piano Festival and premiered on 8th October 2016 at King's Place London by Charles Owen & Katya Apekisheva. Duration approximately: 5 minutes

Baritone Voice-Four Traditional Songs is a setting of four heartbreaking and poignant folk songs by virtuoso contemporary composer Nico Muhly. Composed in 2011 the songs deal with themes of death murder and unimaginable events that are emotively arranged for Baritone Voice and Piano. Commissioned by Carnegie Hall in New York City and Wigmore Hall in London this work was first performed at those renowned venues in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Muhly states that he drew inspiration from old English folksongs and would spend time imagining stylised yet subtle musical settings with accompaniments. The result of this intensive periodof listening is Four Traditional Songs which lasts around 15 minutes and carries that incredible sense of sad balladry that counters the occasionally jaunty melodies. This edition is for Baritone Voice. Please click  here to purchase the Countertenor version .

Pater Noster simply meaning 'Our Father' has been composed by Nico Muhly for SATB Chorus With Soprano Solo and was originally commissioned for the 2008 Edington Music Festival.

Gibbons Suite is a suite of works by Orlando Gibbons arranged by Nico Muhly for Clarinet in B Flat String Quartet and Piano. It was premiered by the Britten Sinfonia in January 2010.

Vocal Score-Nico Muhly's Let All The World In Every Corner Sing for SATB chorus Cello and Organ. Vocal Score.Let All The World In Every Corner Sing was commissioned by Graham Ross and the Choir of Clare College Cambridge and first performed on 27 May 2014 by them with Peter Harrison Organ and Benjamin Michaels Cello.Rebecca Tavener in the March 2015 issue of Organist's Review states that Muhly 'has done more than merely set the text...it is an intriguing fresh response.'

Oculi Omnium is a work by Nico Muhly for Unaccompanied Men's Voices. It is a setting of Psalm 144:15 and was composed for the Clerks of Magdalen College Oxford. A full performance lasts around 2 minutes.

Vocal Score-Nico Muhly's Sentences for Countertenor and Chamber Orchestra. Composed: 2014 Duration: 30 minutes Composers Note: Sentences is a thirty-minute meditation in collaboration with Adam Gopnik on several episodes drawn from the life and work of Alan Turing. Turing lived in a sense many different lives but at the heart of his work was I think a very musical set of anxieties. Even the idea of code-breaking is inherently musical; the French for score-reading is déchiffrage: deciphering. His wartime work on the Enigma code translated later in life to a more nuanced relationship to code in the form ofa primitive but emotionally (and philosophically) complicated artificial intelligence. The piece uses a single voice not to speak necessarily as Turing but as a guide through these various episodes. I’ve always felt that the question of sentient computers is wildly emotional: we anthropomorphise the Mars Rover imagining its solitude on that dusty planet. Any act of communication in which the second person is unseen can be a one-way conversation. An email sent can never be returned — did it arrive or did it not? — or a text message can be delivered but never read. The thrill of a fast response is immediately tempered with the harsh but empty rudeness of an out-of-office reply. Anybody who has made a condolence phone call only to hear the voice of the deceased on the outgoing answering machine message knows the complexities of what could be a simple binary communication.