Morten Lauridsen's I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes was written for Stephen Layton and Polyphony and has been recorded on Lauridsen: Nocturnes (Hyperion CDA 67580). Purchase the sheet music here arranged for mixed vocal chorus.In speaking of Lauridsen in his book Choral Music in the Twentieth Century the author Nick Strimple says of him 'he is the only American composer in history who can be called mystic [whose] probing serene work contains all the elusive and indefinable ingredient which leaves the impression that all questions have been answered [... ] From 1993 Lauridsen's music rapidly increased in international popularity and by the centuy's end he hadeclipsed Tandall Thompson as the most frequently performed American choral composer'.This piece is from Faber's Choral Signature Series which introduces a wealth of new or recently written choral music to choirs in search of fresh repertoire. the series draws in a rich diversity of living composers and includes both lighter and more challenging contemporary works offering a thrilling array of varied styles.
SKU: BT.PMC3676
These two anthems are examples of Lauridsen's style in embryo, as it were, for both were written while the composer was just twenty-seven years old. Both anthems evince the contrapuntal mastery that would prove an enduring featureof the composer's technique. The pure and austere lines of I will lift up mine eyes, an a cappella setting of Psalm 121, evoke ancient organum and the imitative devices of Medieval polyphony. Complex chord structures and elaboratecanonic procedures give O come, let us sing unto the Lord a sense of inexorable forward momentum. The coruscating organ part further enhances the prevailing mood of joy that pervades this anthem. --Byron Adams.
