Commissioned by the Cheltenham Festival

Tape available on hire

  • tp
  • SATB (16 voices)
  • Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass
  • 11 min
  • St John of the Cross
  • Latin

Programme Note

Coplas is a short anthem for voices and tape. It belongs to a much larger work called 'Last Rites' which I have been thinking about for about a year. It is based on the mystical idea of St. John of the Cross which obsesses me - "the more I live the more I must die." Hence the deliberately static nature of Coplas.

In once sense Coplas is a prolonged decoration of the 'et sepultus est' cadence from the Crucifixus in Bach's Mass in B minor. In another sense I think of it not so much as my music but a way of listening to Bach's music.

Media

Coplas

Discography

Title Unavailable
  • Label
    EMI
  • Catalogue Number
    SAPCOR20
  • Ensemble
    London Sinfonietta Chorus / London Sinfonietta / Little Missenden Village School Children
  • Soloist
    June Barton, soprano / Margaret Lensky, alto / John Tavener and David Atherton, conductors

The Whale / Celtic Requiem

The Whale / Celtic Requiem
  • Label
    EMI/Apple
  • Catalogue Number
    0863523
  • Conductor
    David Atherton
  • Ensemble
    London Sinfonietta Chorus / London Sinfonetta
  • Soloist
    June Barton, sop, Anna Reynolds, mezzo, Margaret Leusky, mezzo, Raimund Herincx, bar

More Info