Trinity Requiem (Robert Moran)

Album review

When conductor Robert Ridgell approached Robert Moran requesting a Requiem written for the Trinity Youth Choir of Lower Manhattan in honor of the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the composer was initially hesitant, but eventually agreed and the result is Trinity Requiem. He has admirably hurdled the challenges of the commission, writing a piece with vocal parts that can be managed by children, but with enough musical substance not to trivialize the event it memorializes. Moran is a genuine eclectic whose output includes massive avant-garde projects like a piece written for 40 church choirs, 20 marching bands, and virtually every willing performer from an entire medium-sized American city, and a piece for 39 automobile horns and their lights, radio and television stations, dancers, airplanes, and again, just about anyone willing to make a contribution to the whole. He also has a gift for understated lyricism, which he puts to excellent use in the Requiem. The children's parts are simple and the harmonic language is tonal, and with the addition of an organ and accompanying instrumental ensemble playing music of more complexity he creates a work of real power and depth, as well as some magically delicate sonorities. It's a radiant, altogether lovely work that should be within the performing capabilities of many community or church children's choirs. The album also includes two of Moran's previously released choral works, Seven Sounds Unseen performed by Musica Sacra led by Richard Westenburg and Notturno in Weiss sung by the Esoterics led by Eric Banks. They both convey the tone of hushed awe and mystery characteristic of the Requiem. The extended middle section of Seven Sounds Unseen (which uses a text by John Cage) is especially gorgeous, a luminous harmonic cloud that's harmonically static but that’s animated by the leisurely drift of constantly morphing textures and vocal lines. The sound quality is variable and some of the changes in ambience between sections of the Requiem are distracting. The album should be of special interest to fans of lyrical new choral music.
© Stephen Eddins /TiVo