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500th Performance of Howard Goodall's Eternal Light

Jun. 01, 2017

500th Performance of Howard Goodall's <em>Eternal Light</em>

Since its premiere in 2008, Howard Goodall’s choral masterpiece Eternal Light: A Requiem has been performed by choirs across the world. On June 2, the Cambridge Community Chorus has the distinction of presenting the 500th performance of the work as the centerpiece of its program at the MIT Kresge Auditorium in Cambridge, Massachusetts, led by Pamela Mindell.

The ten-movement, 40-minute work for soloists, chorus and orchestra was commissioned by the London Musici to celebrate its 20th anniversary, and premiered with the Manchester University Chamber Choir along with choreography by the Rambert Dance Company. Though Eternal Light is modeled on the forms of the traditional Requiem, Goodall aimed to develop a greater sense of "solace for the living that mourn." As a result, Goodall writes that he "stripped down the old Latin texts to a few phrases in each movement and laid them beside words from English poems [ranging] across the last 500 years."

Listen to the "Lacrymosa" movement from Goodall's Eternal Light:

Digital perusal scores (vocal and full) are available in Faber Music's Score Library, and a complete commercial recording is available on Warner Classics.

Learn more about Howard Goodall at fabermusic.com.

 

Howard Goodall
Eternal Light: A Requiem (2008)
for soloists, chorus and orchestra or large ensemble
texts (Eng, Lat) from the Requiem Mass; Francis Quarles; Ann Thorp; John Henry Newman; attrib Mary Elizabeth Frye; John McCrae; Phineas Fletcher.
for soprano, tenor, baritone and SATB chorus
2 kybd.hp (opt)-str
40’

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