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World Premiere of Jay Schwartz's In Paradisum in Rome

Apr. 04, 2018

World Premiere of Jay Schwartz's <em>In Paradisum</em> in Rome

On April 18, conductor Lorenzo Donati leads the Solisti Accademia Tedesca in the world premiere of Jay Schwartz's In Paradisum at Santa Maria in Campatelli in Rome. Scored for mixed choir, two violoncellos, two double basses, and organ, the premiere performance features the talents of cellists Michele Marco Rossi and Kyung mi Lee and bassists Daniele Roccato and Giacomo Piermatti. The performance will take place with support from the Accedemia Tedesca Roma Villa Massimo and is dedicated to the composer's father, Howard Leonard Schwartz.

Schwartz says of his work:

"My composition "In paradisum" for choir, 2 cellos, 2 double basses and organ, takes its reference and inspiration from the Gregorian chant of the same name. During my stay in Rome I was once again fascinated by the acoustics of the churches of this city, which had brought forth the Gregorian chants. I undertook small studies, made recordings of chants and liturgical acts in the churches of Rome, and experimented with the collected material on the computer in my studio. The giant, richly resonant acoustics of these sacred buildings and their extreme reverberations act as an amplifier and multiplier of the sound, so that relatively simple chants are clothed in a shimmering, lush robe of acoustics...I perceive the subject of my composition as a rite of passage: life as a transition. The musical means of the glissandi, the tones always moving between fixed steps - a musical language that has long since become a fixed vocabulary of my musical aesthetic - embodies this state of permanent transition in the composition."

Listen to Jay Schwartz's Music for Six Voices I (2006) here:

(Music for Six Voices I/Jay Schwartz/Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart)


Jay Schwartz
In Paradisum (2018)
mixed choir; 2 violoncellos, 2 double basses, organ
20'

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