David Lang: For love is strong
Steve Reich: Know what is above you
Lou Harrison: Mass for St Cecilia’s Day
Terry Riley: Chorus 193 from the Mexico City Blues of Jack Kerouac
Jack Body: Lullabies
Ross Edwards: Sacred Kingfisher Psalms (EIF co-commission, UK Premiere)

A who’s who of influential contemporary American composer alongside young Australasians Ross Edwards and Jack Body makes for a distinctive and exciting choral concert.

Ross Edward’s Sacred Kingfisher Psalms is a co-commission between the Edinburgh International Festival, Canberra International Music Festival and Ars Nova Copenhagen. Drawing on Aboriginal bird names and Latin versions of Psalms 1 and 140, he brings together two texts with a common sense of the significance of place and a strong connection to the earth.

David Lang’s For love is strong explores the metaphors and similes in Song of Songs and takes its title from the line ‘for love is strong as death’. Terry Riley, renowned for being a pioneer of the minimalist movement, muses on Jack Kerouac’s poem Buddhist Jamming Mexico City Blues.

Steve Reich takes his inspiration from The Mishna, a popular text in Judaism dealing with ethics. Lou Harrison’s Mass for St Cecilia’s Day fuses Western and Asian cultures in a percussive work for male voices. New Zealander Jack Body’s Lullabies were inspired in part by the vocal music of China’s minority cultures.

www.eif.co.uk/arsnova

Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes approximately
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