John Tavener: The Call: SATB: Vocal Score

John Tavener's Coplas composed in 1970 for unaccompanied SATB Choir.'Coplas is a short anthem for voices and tape. It belongs to a much larger work called 'Last Rites' which I have beenthinking 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 aprolonged 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.' - JohnTavener

The Vocal score for John Tavener's beautiful work Lament For Jerusalem arranged for Soprano Countertenor and SATB Chorus with a Piano Accompaniment. This score can be used for both the 'Original'and 'Jerusalem' versions of the work. The composition was commissioned by Father Arthur E. Bridge OAM for Ars Musica Australis and was first written in 2002. The 'Jerusalem' version was arranged for theChoir of London in 2004. Tavener himself calls the work 'a mystical love-song' that reflects the 'mystical sacred and sublime nature of the texts'.  Lament For Jerusalem isdivided into seven stanzas each of which contain Christic Judaic and Islamic inspirations making this work truly innovative and interesting. The piece is around 45 minutes long and it is recommended to be performed in a spacein which there are generous acoustics that will allow each individual voice as well as the collective whole to 'breathe' and dissolve into the air.  The work is a wonderful one receiving greatcritical acclaim upon its premiere and impressing audiences the world over for its soaring Soprano melodies and its left-field Middle-Eastern harmonies. The composition is one in a long line of Tavener pieces thatimmediately silences audiences and captivates their attention throughout.  Any performance of Lament For Jerusalem is guaranteed to be a special event and one that audiences willremember for a long time.

A work for unaccompanied SATTBB choir constructed in the form of a Byzantine Canon. The work was commissioned by James Lancelot and the Choir of Durham Cathedral who gave the first performance on the occasion of the 1300thanniversary of the death of St. Cuthbert: 20th March 1987.'Commissioned by James Lancelot and the Choir of Durham Cathedral who gave its first performance on the 20th of March 1987 the 1300th anniversary of St Cuthbert's death. Structurally modelled on a Byzantine Canon Ikon of St Cuthbert 'an ikon of music and words in the place of wood and paint seeks to recall in its stylized form the personal aura of Cuthbert Saint of Lindisfarne'. The textis again by Mother Thekla a contemplation on Cuthbert's life from his early piety and life as a monk acts of spiritual healing consecration as a bishop and retreat into solitude to his death on Farne and ultimate burial inDurham. Imagery of water runs throughout the verses.