Akademisk Kor.
Akademisk Orkester.
Nenia Zenana, conductor.
Marianne G. Nielsen, solist.
Academic Orchestra was founded in 1899, and in 1935 was created by the Academic
Choir. There is therefore a well-established ensemble, where particularly the choir has managed to lead traditionerneop in the present and develop its own interpretation of the music.
Academic Choir is an ambitious amateur choir with a long tradition of the construction of major choral works, particularly oratorie works and exhibitions, which must be shown together with the Academic Orchestra. Academic Orchestra and Choir performs every
Christmas Handel's Messiah in
Copenhagen Cathedral, an annual tradition since the first performance in 1946.
Academic Choir was originally an ensemble of students, but today consists of approximately 70 members with different backgrounds. Nenia Zenana has been
conductor for choir and Orchestra since the summer of
2000.
Arvo Pärt (born 11 september 1935) is an
Estonian composer. He was born in
Paide, and grew up in
Tallinn. In
1980 he emigrated because of dissatisfaction with the
Soviet authorities and settled first in
Vienna, then
Berlin.
As a young composer experimented
Pärt a part with a variety of the
Western modernismes composition techniques; but gradually he found his own style: a personal variant of minimalism, which has made him one of today's best-known and most popular of classical composers. His music in this style is influenced by his religiousness and his interest in choral music from 14. to 16. in the
19th century.
His best-known work is probably Fratres, available in editions for a number of different combinations of instruments.
Te Deum is a setting of the
Latin Te Deum text, also known as the
Ambrosian Hymn attributed to
Saints Ambrose,
Augustine, and
Hilary, by Estonian-born composer Arvo Pärt commissioned by the
Westdeutscher Rundfunk Radio in
Cologne, Germany in
1984.
Dedicated to the late
Alfred Schlee of
Universal Edition, the
WDR Broadcast Choir premiered the Te Deum under the direction of conductor
Dennis Russell Davies on
January 19,
1985. The Te Deum plays an important role in the services of many
Christian denominations, including the Paraklesis (Moleben) of
Thanksgiving in the
Eastern Orthodox Church. Because of the unusual instrumentation Pärt employs, his Te Deum is not suited for use within the
Orthodox Church. It was recorded on the
ECM New Series label in
1993 by the
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn
Chamber Orchestra under the direction of
Tõnu Kaljuste. The piece is approximately thirty minutes long.
Te Deum employs Pärt's signature tintinnabuli compositional style. Tintinnabuli is often described as a minimalistic compositional technique, as its harmonic logic departs from that of the tonal tradition of
Western classical music, creating its own distinct harmonic system. Tintinnabulation is a process in which a chosen triad encircles a melody, manifesting itself in specific positions in relation to the melody according to a predetermined scheme of adjacency. In its most rudimentary form, Pärt's tintinnabuli music is composed of two main voices: one carries the usually stepwise melody (M-voice) while the other follows the trajectory of the melody but is limited to notes of a specific triad (T-voice
.) In the case of Te Deum, it is a D triad that is featured in the T-voice, and as such provides the harmonic basis for the entire piece.
The work is scored for three choirs (women's choir, men's choir, and mixed choir), prepared piano, divisi strings, and wind harp. According to the Universal Edition full score, the piano part requires that four pitches be prepared with metal screws and calls for "as large a concert grand as possible" and "amplified." The wind harp is similar to the
Aeolian Harp, its strings vibrating due to wind passing through the instrument.
Manfred Eicher of
ECM Records "recorded this 'wind music' on tape and processed it acoustically." The two notes (D and A) performed on the wind harp are to be played on two separate CD or
DAT recordings. According to the score preface, the wind harp functions as a drone throughout the piece, fulfilling "a
function comparable to that of the ison in
Byzantine church music, a repeated note which does not change pitch."
On an
ECM records leaflet, Pärt wrote that the Te Deum text has "immutable truths," reminding him of the "immeasurable serenity imparted by a mountain panorama." His composition sought to communicate a mood "that could be infinite in time—out of the flow of
infinity. I had to draw this music gently out of silence and emptiness."
- published: 27 Dec 2011
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