• str
  • 11 min
    • 20th March 2025, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
    • 21st March 2025, City Halls, Glasgow, United Kingdom
    View all

Programme Note

Musica Celestis is inspired by the medieval conception of that phrase which refers to the singing of the angels in heaven in praise of God without end. “The office of singing pleases God if it is performed with an attentive mind, when in this way we imitate the choirs of angels who are said to sing the Lord’s praises without ceasing.” (Aurelian of Réöme, translated by Barbara Newman) I don’t particularly believe in angels, but found this to be a potent image that has been reinforced by listening to a good deal of medieval music, especially the soaring work of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). This movement follows a simple, spacious melody and harmonic pattern through a number of variations (like a passacaglia) and modulations, and is framed by an introduction and coda.
— Aaron Jay Kernis

Media

Musica Celestis for string orchestra

Scores

Features

  • Anton Bruckner Bicentenary in 2024
    • Anton Bruckner Bicentenary in 2024
    • Anton Bruckner celebrates his 200th birthday in 2024. The Austrian composer, organist and teacher is one of the great mavericks of the music world. We have highlighted works that can be combined well with Bruckner's symphonies or with his vocal works for your next concert programmes.

Reviews

Even more moving was Aaron Jay Kernis’ “Musica Celestis,” a kind of outer-space exploration of eerie hymnlike harmonies building to first one climax and then another before receding to deep space. Nakahara suggested a parallel with Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. Kernis’ music shares a mystical quality with Barber’s together with a superb command of instrumentation. But Kernis’ projects an unmistakable individuality.
Travis Rivers, The Spokesman Review
22nd March 2009
The piece is punctuated by soaring melodic strings...and bursts of striking dissonance and palpable tension.
Cathalena E. Burch, Arizona Daily Star
24th October 2008
An indelible memory was formed by Aaron Jay Kernis’ 1990 Musica Celestis. Like Barber’s ubiquitous Adagio, it began life as the slow movement of a string quartet, and was quickly arranged for full string orchestra. Its evocations of endless hymns of praise to God included whispered strings in exquisite soft harmonies, with a gradual accretion to treacherously high, keening string tessitura. A quick cutoff drops instantly back into slow, lush harmonic thoughts where gentle consecutive falling intervals coalesce to form a hauntingly spiritual and deeply satisfying conclusion.
Herman Trotter , The Buffalo News
16th March 2008
Musica Celestis stands in comparison to Barber's famous Adagio. Like the Barber piece, Kernis's work is a string-orchestra transcription of an adagio movement from a string quartet and is effectively solemn and mournful.

Kernis's music is about melody, harmony, technique - and relaxation. This is a superbly engineered CD. A highly recommended CD.
It is a relief after such vehement and splenetic music to encounter Kernis’s most famous piece. This is the middle movement of his First String Quartet transcribed by the composer for full string orchestra...certainly anyone needs to see this out. This writing is gentle, yielding, supplicatory and emphatic yet never hectoring...
Rob Barnett, MusicWeb-International.com

Discography

Title Unavailable
  • Label
    Phoenix USA
  • Catalogue Number
    165
  • Conductor
    Gerard Schwarz
  • Ensemble
    New York Chamber Symphony
  • Released
    1st August 2006
Title Unavailable
  • Label
    Phoenix USA
  • Catalogue Number
    140
  • Conductor
    Hugh Wolff

Echoes

Echoes
  • Label
    Hear Music
  • Catalogue Number
    CD 159
  • Conductor
    Gerard Schwarz
  • Ensemble
    Seattle Symphony
Title Unavailable
  • Label
    Polygram/Argo
  • Catalogue Number
    448 900-2
  • Conductor
    Hugh Wolff
  • Ensemble
    City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Title Unavailable
  • Label
    Virgin Classics
  • Catalogue Number
    45464, 482019
  • Conductor
    Eiji Oue
  • Ensemble
    Minnesota Orchestra
Title Unavailable
  • Label
    Virgin Classics
  • Catalogue Number
    45464, 482019
  • Conductor
    Eiji Oue
  • Ensemble
    Minnesota Orchestra
  • Soloist
    Truls Otterbech Mørk, cello