Morten Johannes Lauridsen, Composer-in-Residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1994-2001 and Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than thirty years, occupies a permanent place in the standard vocal repertoire of the Twentieth Century. His seven vocal cycles -- Les Chansons des Roses (Rilke), Mid-Winter Songs (Graves), Cuatro Canciones (Lorca), A Winter Come (Moss), Madrigali: Six "FireSongs" on Renaissance Italian Poems, Nocturnes, and Lux Aeterna -- and his series of sacred a cappella motets (O Magnum Mysterium, Ave Maria, O Nata Lux, Ubi Caritas et Amor and Ave Dulcissima Maria) are featured regularly in concert by distinguished ensembles throughout the world. O Magnum Mysterium, Dirait-on (from Les Chansons des Roses) and O Nata Lux (from Lux Aeterna) have become the all-time best-selling choral octavos distributed by Theodore Presser, in business since 1783. In speaking of Lauridsen's sacred works in his book, Choral Music in the Twentieth Century, musicologist and conductor Nick Strimple describes Lauridsen as "the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic, (whose) probing, serene work contains an elusive and indefinable ingredient which leaves the impression that all the questions have been answered... From 1993 Lauridsen's music rapidly increased in international popularity, and by century's end he had eclipsed Randall Thompson as the most frequently performed American choral composer." Raised in Portland, Oregon, Mr. Lauridsen (b. February 27, 1943 in Colfax, Washington) attended Whitman College and worked as a Forest Service firefighter and lookout (on an isolated tower near Mt. St. Helens) before travelling south to attend USC, where he studied composition with Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens, Robert Linn and Harold Owen.
1 | Les Chansons des Roses - 4. La Rose Complète | Lux Æterna |
2 | Lux Æterna - III. O Nata lux | Lux Æterna |
3 | Les Chansons des Roses - 2. Contre Qui, Rose | Lux Æterna |
4 | Les Chansons des Roses - 3. De Ton Rêve Trop Plein | Lux Æterna |
5 | O Magnum Mysterium | Lux Æterna |
6 | Ave Maria | Lux Æterna |
7 | Les Chansons des Roses - 5. Dirait-on | Lux Æterna |
8 | Lux Æterna - IV. Veni, Sancte Spiritus | Lux Æterna |
9 | Mid-Winter Songs - III. She Tells Her Love While H | Lux Æterna |
10 | Mid-Winter Songs - I. Lament for Pasiphaë | Lux Æterna |
11 | Mid-Winter Songs - V. Intercession in Late October | Lux Æterna |
12 | Mid-Winter Songs - IV. Mid-winter Waking | Lux Æterna |
13 | Mid-Winter Songs - II. Like Snow | Lux Æterna |
14 | Lux Æterna - I. Introitus | Lux Æterna |
15 | Lux Æterna - V. Agnus Dei — Lux Æterna | Lux Æterna |
16 | Lux Æterna - II. In Te, Domine, speravi | Lux Æterna |
17 | Les Chansons des Roses - 1. En Une Seule Fleur | Lux Æterna |