Search - Matthew Best, Coryden Brass Ensemble, Coryden Singers :: Simpson: Eppur Si Muove For Organ, Tempi, etc. / Coryden Brass, Best, et al

Hyperion has released this disc as a memorial tribute to English composer Robert Simpson, who died in 1997 at age 76. Simpson was best known for his symphonies, but this record presents another side to his work: his only compositions for chorus and for organ. The organ work "Eppur si muove" ("But it does move"--the words Galileo purportedly muttered upon being forced to recant his theory that the earth circles the sun) is based on a circling pattern of notes; the bulk of the piece is a passacaglia (a set of variations over a repeated bass melody) with circling on both micro and macro levels--micro in the circling of the theme itself, macro in that the successive statements of that theme move up in key through the entire chromatic scale and back to the original key. The motet for chorus, brass, and percussion "Media morte in vita sumus" ("In the midst of death we are in life"), whose title inverts the phrase "In the midst of life we are in death" from the Christian burial liturgy, is a long prelude with constantly shifting tonal centers leading into a restless, exciting fugue. The centerpiece of the disc is "Tempi" for unaccompanied chorus, with a text made up entirely of musical terms: the piece goes--literally--from adagio through andante and allegretto to prestissimo and back, with plenty of words such as pianissimo, crescendo, furioso, and tranquillo thrown in. It's a witty idea, but the music seems surprisingly serious; while there are some striking melodies and harmonies, there's no discernible humor, at least in the Corydon Singers' precise but straight-faced reading. The heroes of this record are the brass players, whose command of tone color is astonishing: in the Canzona for brass that opens the disc, they evoke, by turns, clarinets, violins, and accordions as well as trumpets, horns, and trombones. --Matthew Westphal