The composer David Bednall and the Epiphoni Consort choir are both rather new on the scene as of the 2010s, but here they've produced a top-notch recording of music that's firmly rooted in the English choral tradition, yet absolutely distinctive. Annotator Andrew Stewart accurately points to aspects held in common by Bednall and the English "Romantic Moderns" of the 1930s, yet it might be better to call him a Romantic Eclectic. Some of the pieces here, taken in isolation, fit with those of other composers of the English, ...
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The composer David Bednall and the Epiphoni Consort choir are both rather new on the scene as of the 2010s, but here they've produced a top-notch recording of music that's firmly rooted in the English choral tradition, yet absolutely distinctive. Annotator Andrew Stewart accurately points to aspects held in common by Bednall and the English "Romantic Moderns" of the 1930s, yet it might be better to call him a Romantic Eclectic. Some of the pieces here, taken in isolation, fit with those of other composers of the English, neo-tonal school, but it's the sequence of events that's more unusual. The music is sacred and secular, Latin and English, diatonic and polytonal, and thickly chromatic, yet all recognizably a product of the same pen. Sample the transition from the spacious Latin motet Lux orta est iusto (written for performance with Tallis' Spem in alium, for similar forces) to the following setting of Rise up, my love, from the Song of Songs , which opens with a long organ prelude that reminds...
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