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Howard Goodall's Eternal Light: A Requiem Now Available for Concert Performances in the US and Released on EMI Classics

Apr. 01, 2009

In recent months, British composer Howard Goodall has enjoyed tremendous success in the UK with his 40-minute choral-orchestral work Eternal Light: A Requiem, which continues to tour as a ballet and to soar high in the UK classical charts courtesy of its EMI Classics recording.

Originally commissioned as a choral, orchestral and dance piece by Mark Stephenson on behalf of London Musici to celebrate the orchestra's 20th anniversary, Eternal Light saw its London premiere in November of 2008 at Sadler's Wells performed by the Rambert Dance Company (Mark Baldwin, artistic director) London Musici, The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and Finchley Children's Music Group, conducted by Paul Hoskins. Rambert has toured Eternal Light successfully around England with more dates upcoming. Also available as a standalone work for chorus, soloists, strings and keyboard, Eternal Light was released on the EMI Classics recording by London Musici, The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, soloists Natasha Marsh, Alfie Boe and Christopher Maltman and conducted by Stephen Darlington. Alternating between passages in Latin from the Requiem Mass, the Book of Revelation and English language poems, Goodall's work is intended to provide solace to the grieving rather than represent a prayer for the departed. The composer elaborates:

For me, a modern requiem is one that acknowledges the terrible, unbearable loss and emptiness that accompanies the death of loved ones, a loss that is not easily ameliorated with platitudes about the joy awaiting us in the afterlife. Musical expression can I hope provide some outlet, some reflection, some transportation, even some comfort. This was to be a requiem for the living, a requiem focusing on interrupted lives.

Jeffery Taylor of The Sunday Express had this to say on the London premiere:

Pure quality floods from the stage as soon as the curtain rises on Eternal Light. Howard Goodall's requiem for the living is an understated, haunting distillation of medieval choral church music and Mark Baldwin breathes the best of the human condition into this gorgeous framework of sound. Rambert is touring Eternal Light; don't miss it, I guarantee you'll feel better for seeing it.

Critics were also forthcoming in their praise for the EMI Classics recording. Andrew Stewart writing in Classic FM Magazine comments:

The world premiere recording, delivered with great conviction and no little beauty, underlines the contemplative nature of the score: hell's maw and divine wrath take second place here to expressions of untroubled eternity. That said, the Orff-like Revelation movements and Dies irae eloquently take stock of earthly tumult. A simple, unpretentious and ultimately moving work.

Martin Le Poidevin writing in classicmusictoday.co.uk adds:

In many cases the English words seem to be inextricably married to the music, the notes fitting the words like a glove. The Latin words are often an apt fit, too, whether it's the Requiem aeternam theme sung by the choir at the very start of the piece or the semi-chanted sections of the Factum est Silentium. The way that the English (generally sung by the soloists) and Latin (generally the choir) sections interlock and contrast is often quite tellingly managed... Goodall may well have created another gentle choral society hit along the lines of Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace. There are plenty of ways in which Eternal Light: A Requiem could be a hit: in the theatre, in the local church, and on the CD shelves, this may be the right requiem for our time.

Eternal Light: A Requiem is published by Faber Music Ltd. Contact Schott Music/EAM for promotion inquiries or to acquire the orchestral score and parts on rental. The vocal score is available on sale from Alfred Publishing as well as a choral octavo of the 4th movement Lead, Kindly Light.

Find out more about Eternal Light by visiting www.eternallightrequiem.com.

For more on the music of Howard Goodall visit www.fabermusic.com.

Purchase your copy of the EMI Classics recording of Eternal Light: A Requiemhere.

Howard Goodall
Eternal Light: A Requiem (2008)
texts from the Requiem Mass and Book of Revelation (Latin) and Francis Quarles; Ann Thorp, John Henry Newman, Mary Elizabeth Frye (attrib), John McCrae, Phineas Fletcher (En)
for soprano, tenor and/or baritone soloists, SATB chorus, keyboards and strings
40'

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