jónsi at the pantages + i heart morten lauridsen + don't be a hater

I recently went to an amazing show at the Pantages put on by Jónsi. I wrote about his new album, Go, a few weeks ago and seeing how he put it together for a live show was incredible.
















The set was designed by an English company that has expertise in the world of operatic productions and they most definitely brought that type of drama to the stage for this concert. Here's the trailer for his fall tour which, since he's coming to Austin, I'll hopefully be able to see:

In any case, this was hands-down the best live show I've ever been to. At one point the drummer had a spotlight directly behind him which cast a 30-foot tall, marionette-like shadow on the left wall of the theater and there were all sorts of beautiful things projected onto various things on stage. Combined with the music, the audience left having had everything wrung emotionally out of them by a man who only said one thing to them during the entire proceedings (and that was only because he had to stall while he tuned his guitar). Aside from that, the only time the band broke the fourth wall was when they bowed at the end.

The music he makes is something truly amazing. I think that Go will easily occupy my pantheon of "Albums I Could Listen To Any Time" for a long, long time (if not forever). I'm so glad I caught him live.

The Jónsi show was on a Sunday and catapulted me into a week of insane music happenings. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday saw The Singers doing 5-hour recording sessions with Morten Lauridsen for a new album of his works (with a few world premiere recordings as well!). The sessions were held at a beautiful church in residential Saint Paul with Dr. Lauridsen himself at the keyboard for a few pieces.





























I'm not sure how many choirs do this level of recording but to watch Matt Culloton and the producers work the kinks out of some of the more obscure Lauridsen pieces is absolutely fascinating for me and totally worth the backache I've worked up when the clock is approaching midnight and I'm still popping out high notes.

That being said, it would be a meaningless experience if not for Morten Lauridsen's music itself. (The first choral CD I bought when I was 17 was the LA Master Chorale's recording of a bunch of his choral cycles, Lux Aeterna. His "O Magnum Mysterium" is one of the big reasons I even stayed in a choir at all. The damn thing still gets me all misty to this day and I've sung it dozens of times.) His works just "open up" the choir so well. You could be having the worst day of your life by the time you roll into rehearsal but, by the climax of most of these works, you're somewhere else giving full-throated advocacy for the music in front of you. Not every composer can do this and, in the face of so much of this music, it becomes evident just how important this man is to choral music in the world.

You know, a lot has been said about how his music "all sounds the same" or this and that. And, you know what, I'm kind of sick of that level of criticism of everything (music or not). To say that sort of thing about ML's music is to completely miss the point. Don't come at it from a theoretical point because that's not what the soul of the piece is really about and, frankly, that's annoying. It's the classical equivalent of being a dirty, dirty hater.

Yes, "O Nata Lux" sounds quite a bit like "O Magnum Mysterium" (same key, almost identical opening chord, etc.) but I would argue that, if that's where you land on the man's music, then you're only looking at the forest instead of the trees (to confusingly reverse a metaphor). The point of these works is not to be looked at as a comprehensive whole but, rather, one beautiful thing at a time. For instance, Van Gogh's mature work looks like it was all done by the same guy but nobody ever bitches about that.

You wanna say that all Lauridsen's stuff sounds the same? Fine. What you actually want to say is that you're educated and smart and discerning? Then you'll probably go off and listen to the same 8 composers on your local classical station and be satisfied.

And you've probably also never heard the Mid-Winter Songs. They are nothing like the popular, more easily-consumed things (like the rose cycle or the Lux Aeternai). And the older cycles like his Four English Madrigals (almost a pastiche on Thomas-Morely-or-whatever) or his earlier psalms (Psalm 29 is one of the more difficult things I've ever performed) are completely different.

Yeesh. Here I got myself all worked into a lather about nothing. Here listen to this and let the soothing voice and music of Morten Johannes Lauridsen calm you down.

And p.s. my friends, he is the nicest guy you could ever meet. I had a chance to get to know him a bit better over breakfast at Hell's Kithchen with Jocelyn and Matt and he is as gracious as you could ever hope anyone in his position to be.

I'll be changing my life pretty fundamentally in the next few months with a move to Austin, Texas where I'll become a student again and, although I'm terribly excited, I'm also quite nervous about getting back into the academic swing of things. During the course of our time together he said something that I've got scrawled out on a piece of paper which is currently taped to my wall: "Young man, I'll give you a semester to prove if you can do it."

I'm going to get that shit tattooed on the back of my hand, I swear. It serves as a reminder that focus breeds success.

Thanks, Skip.