http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CCJkuhe6JY
Morten Lauridsen is a modern day choral composer who has taken the choral world into a different realm of harmonies, sonoroties, and dissonances. The following bio was taken from Wikipedia: Lauridsen was born February 27, 1943, in Colfax, Washington to a family of immigrants from Denmark. He was raised in Portland, Oregon, where his father was with the United States Forest Service. His mother, who worked as a bookkeeper, was a pianist who had played in her high school dance band, and Lauridsen developed a love for music at an early age, by listening to her play swing jazz and sing. At age eight he started playing the piano, and a couple of years later learned to play the trumpet. He studied composition with Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens, Robert Linn, and Harold Owen at the University of Southern California in the 1960s. Lauridsen's choral compositions, including seven choral cycles and a series of sacred a cappella motets, are featured regularly in concerts worldwide. In particular, O Magnum Mysterium, Contre Qui, Rose and Dirait-on (from Les Chansons des Roses), and O Nata Lux (from Lux Aeterna) have become popular items in the choral repertoire.
The Ubi Caritas was orignally intended as a hymn to played during the sacrement of washing feet on the Maundy (Holy) Thursday observance. Now it is often used in concert and as a Lenten anthem for church choirs. Here is the text and translation:
Latin:
Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.
Exultemus, et in ipso jucundemur.
Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.
Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.
Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Simul ergo cum in unum congregamur:
Ne nos mente dividamur, caveamus.
Cessent iurgia maligna, cessent lites.
Et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus.
Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.
Simul quoque cum beatis videamus,
Glorianter vultum tuum, Christe Deus:
Gaudium quod est immensum, atque probum,
Saecula per infinita saeculorum. Amen.
English:
Where charity and love are, God is there.
Christ's love has gathered us into one.
Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him.
Let us fear, and let us love the living God.
And may we love each other with a sincere heart.
Where charity and love are, God is there.
As we are gathered into one body,
Beware, lest we be divided in mind.
Let evil impulses stop, let controversy cease,
And may Christ our God be in our midst.
Where charity and love are, God is there.
And may we with the saints also,
See Thy face in glory, O Christ our God:
The joy that is immense and good,
Unto the ages through infinite ages. Amen.
This piece has been picked in response to a special request by one of my blog followers to pick a piece by Lauridsen. Hope you enjoy it!
Thank you Peter! Beautiful. God bless.
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