The pleasantly tonal religious choral work, literate in its selection of text and compositionally accomplished in its evocation of Renaissance and Baroque models, has been up to now the province mostly of British composers and performers. Even those for whom such music is less attractive will be impressed by the strength of this new American entry, featuring music by the Oregon composer Robert Kyr. The choir is the increasingly acclaimed Austin, TX, ensemble Conspirare, which has a rotating membership. That doesn't impede ...
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The pleasantly tonal religious choral work, literate in its selection of text and compositionally accomplished in its evocation of Renaissance and Baroque models, has been up to now the province mostly of British composers and performers. Even those for whom such music is less attractive will be impressed by the strength of this new American entry, featuring music by the Oregon composer Robert Kyr. The choir is the increasingly acclaimed Austin, TX, ensemble Conspirare, which has a rotating membership. That doesn't impede director Craig Hella Johnson in forging a smooth sound that's ideally suited to this music. All the music has been written since 2010. After a brief opening motet, The Singer's Ode, comes a pair of cantatas, conceived as companion works to each other and roughly tracing a path from doubt to faith, and exploring the relationship between human and divine love. Each text mixes the writings of a Renaissance-era mystic -- St. Teresa of Avila in the case of The Cloud of Unknowing and St....
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