Sunday, November 17th, 2013, 5pm, €10
St Nicholas Collegiate Church
LUX AETERNA
St Nicholas Singers in concert with poetry
from Susan Millar DuMars and Kevin Higgins.
A Requiem for modern times
In its first outing in November 2012, St
Nicholas Singers performed one of the great nineteenth century Requiem
settings, that of Gabriel Faure; this year it gives Galway audiences the chance
to hear a thoroughly modern take on this ancient form.
Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna was written
in 1997 and is a work of 25 minutes’ duration in five movements, setting
various Latin liturgical texts, some of them from the Requiem Mass and all of
them suffused with the notion of light. The composer himself says “I composed
Lux Aeterna in response to my Mother’s final illness and found great personal
comfort and solace in setting to music these timeless and wondrous words about
Light, a universal symbol of illumination at all levels—spiritual, artistic,
and intellectual.”
This is a poignant, quietly serene Requiem
for modern times. There is no gloom or grim foreboding, no Day of Judgement
lurking, but rather a generous radiance captured in the lush harmonies and
haunting melodies. It is a work that is as uplifting for listeners as it
is to sing, and in the glorious acoustic of Galway’s medieval collegiate church
promises to be a very special experience.
Interspersed with the movements of the
Lauridsen work will be readings from acclaimed Galway-based poets Kevin Higgins
and Susan Millar DuMars. Susan will read excerpts from her recent publication The
God Thing, in which she writes with compassion and clarity about the terminal
illness and death of a family member and her own resulting struggle to keep
faith and love alive within herself.
St Nicholas Singers is an all-comers group
of 40-60 voices which prepares its performances over two weekends of intensive
rehearsals. It is open to all regardless of age or experience, and new members
are always welcome.
The choir is conducted by Mark Duley and
accompanied by organist Ronan De Burca.
Further information available from info@scholacantorumgalway.ie
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