A third composer associated with this term is John Tavener, described in Wikipedia as follows:
"During his career he became one of the best known and popular composers of his generation, most particularly for The Protecting Veil, which as recorded by cellist Steven Isserlis became a bestselling album, and Song for Athene which was sung at the funeral of Princess Diana."Here are recordings of the two mentioned pieces; have a listen, and share your thoughts in the "Comments" section below, if you wish.
Let me know if you have any suggestions of other favourite Tavener pieces to add to these recordings; I'll happily post more recordings if I get suggestions.
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4 comments:
"The Protecting Veil" and "Song for Athene" were very nice pieces to listen to. I am not very familiar with John Tavener's work so it was nice to listen and learn about another composer! One thing that I find with minimalistic pieces is that some composer use the same idea over and over again with little to no variations, and then the piece just becomes dull. With "The Protecting Veil" however, Tavener does use his ideas a lot, but there are build-ups going on in the background. He switches from the soloist alone to having drone-like sounds in the background accompanying, and then an even bigger role for the background strings that adds so much emotion in the piece. I also liked his use of those sparse entries over the top of the soloist, for example at the 6:50 mark, there was a big build-up beforehand then all of a sudden the strings come out with big forte eighth notes. The one thing about this piece that caught me a bit off guard was that there were so many spots where it seemed like the piece had ended, but it was just a pause before the next section. (8:53 for example) I wonder why he decided to add those pauses instead of moving into the new section?
I enjoyed both these pieces, I was particularly drawn to "Song for Athene" though. "The Protecting Veil" was moving, and had a mournful quality to it. I can understand how the term sacred minimalism is used to describe it, however it was far more obvious to me in "Song for Athene" Perhaps because it is so clearly reminiscent of early church music. Something like a Gregorian chant. But it has it's own twist to it. It is not simply just replicating the past. It's increased use of dynamics was very cool to see intertwined with such an old genre of music. Tavener is combining the old with the new, and that's what makes the music interesting and fresh. The large crescendo into silence followed by the soft reentry of the choir was brilliant in my opinion. Both pieces demonstrate the sacred and spiritual nature while at the same time being very conservative in the use of ideas while also remaining relevant and interesting. This difficult combination was done quite well by Tavener in these pieces.
I loved the protecting veil because it reminded me of fly away home and Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber. I do understand that John Tavener composed solely for and because of god. I think that I partially thought of JSC because I knew that John Tavener was religious but also because what I imagined in my head was when Jesus was taken off cross and the postlude composition started to play, both the protecting veil and the postlude were very similar because the both have melancholic but still uplifting parts that ascend and descend like waves almost if they've always been here. I think this was the intension as this is probably what the protecting veil is all about. As for the song for Athene, I wasn't a big fan of it but I did like the ending where there was this one sustained voice that was was above the rest the main a perfect tension release that made me think of death but also the ascension to heaven as it was for Lady Diana.
One of the things I find really interesting about modern church music that might be considered minimalistic is that often it borrows from very old church music traditions and musical styles (I love modern choral works that borrow from plainchant or use a plainchant style like Taverner did in the Song for Athene). Using medieval techniques like drones, plainchant-like melodies, and consecutive open 5ths to reference organum in modern contexts provides interesting ways to create music that might sound very "modern" and in many cases minimalistic to listeners who are not familiar with the music of the medieval church.
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