Morten Lauridsen: Six Fire Songs - Io Pango: Mixed Choir a Cappella: Vocal Score

Madrigals by the Renaissance composer Monteverdi provided the inspiration for my own Madrigali. Symbolic images of flames burning and fire recur often in Italian love poems from this era and my cycle on texts employingthis fire motive blends stylistic musical features of the period (word painting modality bold harmonic shifts intricate counterpoint augenmusik etc.) within a contemporary compositional idiom. The music emanates from asingle primal sonority (the “Fire-Chord”) which opens the piece and is found extensively throughout all six movements in myriad forms and manipulations providing motivic unity to complement the poetic. This cycle ofmadrigals has been designated an American Choral Masterpiece by the National Endowment for the Arts.--Morten Lauridsen

Morten Lauridsen is most noted for his vocal cycles and sacred motets which are performed extensively throughout the world. He is Professor of Composition at the USC Thornton School of Music in the United States. The Madrigali: Six ‘Fire Songs’ on Italian Renaissance poems were premiered in Los Angeles in 1988. Each of the six poems in the cycle contains romantic references to fire and the music is unified by manipulations of a sonority called the ‘Fire-Chord’ which opens the piece and is found extensively throughout. Whilst the pieces are contained in a cycle each piece could be performedindividually. Translations of the poems are provided. The Choral Programme Series is now a well-esatablished programming tool for many choirs as it offers a wealth of fresh material from many eras and in many styles. Also offering great value for money as each volume in the series provides up to forty minutes of music