American Choral Review Archive

Professor Kross discusses Brahms's choral writing against the background of...

Professor Kross discusses Brahms's choral writing against the background of the composer's entire creative career, considering Brahms's choral works in details of their reception, their performance practice, and their key role in his life work. It is a Brahms biography written from the point of view of the development of his choral style. Included are all of Brahms's choral works bearing opus numbers. A chronological listing and a topical index are added at the end of the volume to round out a total representation of Brahms's work as a choral composer.

Editorial marking what would have been the 75th birthday of...

Editorial marking what would have been the 75th birthday of Hugo Distler.

Purcell wrote a great deal of music for the stage....

Purcell wrote a great deal of music for the stage. Of the fifty or so plays to which he contributed music, Dioclesian, King Arthur, The Fairy Queen, The Indian Queen, and The Tempest are the ones that contain the most substantial amount of music; they are at times classed with Dido and Aeneas as operas. Dido (produced in 1689), like the Italian operas of the seventeenth century, is sung throughout, and the principal dramatic characters have recitatives and arias. But the five dramatic works mentioned above contain much spoken dialogue and are essentially plays to which musical numbers have been grafted, with varying degrees of relevancy. In all of them the chorus is an important element.

In the tradition of British music Kodály now occupies a...

In the tradition of British music Kodály now occupies a place of honor; this is particularly the case in respect of choral music, where - by example and involvement - he has done more to ratify and strengthen basic principles of our heritage than anyone not brought up within the tradition since the time of Handel.

Because of the prevailing schism caused by the "authentic performance...

Because of the prevailing schism caused by the "authentic performance practice," wrote Paul Henry Lang of a new recording of Bach's B-Minor Mass, "the performances range from a double barbershop quartet to the reinforced battalions of the choral societies." But Maximalism goes far beyond the latter; and it is not based on any claim to authenticity but on the most justifiable sheer joy in singing.

Rifkin's response to Donal Henahan's "How Far Shall We Go...

Rifkin's response to Donal Henahan's "How Far Shall We Go With Minimalism?" American Choral Review,Vol. XXV, No. 3