John Tavener Research Articles

Direct Creativity the Thought Of In Music: John Tavener And the Work Of "The Lamb"

Sanat tarihinde 20. yüzyıl, tüm sanat dalları için cesur girişimler ve yenilikler dönemi olarak bilinmektedir. 1970 yıllarında ortaya çıkarak, armonideki karmaşık gelen ezgilerin yerini tamamıyla sade ve yalın bir anlatımla ifade eden Yeni Yalınlık akımı, bireysel eserler veren bestecilerin stilleri üzerinde önemli bir etkiye sahiptir ve elde edilen veriler önem taşımaktadır. Bu amaç doğrultusunda yapılan çalışmada, 20. yüzyılda oluşan Yeni Yalınlık akımı anlatılmakta ve bu akımın besteciler üzerindeki etkisinin neler olduğu, akımın içerisinde gelişen yenilikler belirlenirken, bestelerdeki ilahi temaların müziklerine nasıl yön verdikleri soruları cevaplanmaya çalışılmıştır. Elde edilen bilgilerin, Türkiye’deki müzik öğrencileri ve yüksek lisans öğrencileri tarafından eğitim amaçlı bir kaynak olarak kullanılması hedeflenmektedir. Araştırma, betimsel bir çalışmadır. Araştırmada nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden doküman analizi yöntemi kullanılarak konu ile ilgili alan yazın taranmış, tarama sonucunda Yeni yalınlık akımı hakkında bilgiler tespit edilmiştir. Bu tespit sonucunda örneklem olarak John Tavener hakkında bilgi verilmiş ve The Lamb eseri üzerinde içerik analizi yapılmıştır.

Sacred Music in a Sacred Space: Performance as Communal Event


 
 
 During the Easter Week of 1999, the composer John Tavener (1944-2013) visited the Holy Trinity Archdiocesan Greek Orthodox Cathedral in New York City, to attend a unique concert, that occured under the auspicies of His Eminence Archbishop Spyridon, featuring Tavener's sacred para- liturgical music, conducted by the late maestro Dino Anagnost (1944-2011). Using this event as a base, regarding its reception and meaning, this paper ventures to compose a theoretical context, in which the performance of sacred works can function in a sacred performance space, while focusing on the composer's understanding of the notion of sacred in composition and in music making in general. Througout the course this research paper, the reader will explore ways in which the systematic application of musicological and theological tools on the complete musical material of the performed works, leads to a provocative analogy of sacred music being performed in a sacred space with a communal event within the church community. Ultimately, this paper suggests that such an occassion is closer to the idea of ecclesial event; an original concept created by the greek philosopher and theologian Christos Yannaras (1936-).
 
 

The Towards Silence Project: Multiple String Quartets Organize to Perform a New Musical Form in Spatially Variable and Distributed Conditions

This case describes an example of a collective making process in the field of performing arts. In 2009, multiple string quartets (many considered world class) organized to perform a new musical composition by Sir John Tavener. The composition challenged four quartets at a time to perform as an integrated ensemble while sitting apart, in various configurations, and at spatial distances up to 70 feet. The process unfolded in three phases: pre-rehearsals of the first group of quartets in the United Kingdom (UK), a series of rehearsals leading to one premiere performance by the second group of quartets in New York, and a series of rehearsals integrated with additional performances in four distinct venues in the UK. Mid-way through the process, the musicians chose to integrate a simple coordinating technology into their process, to address the difficulties produced by distance. This telling of the case story describes what the musicians did to achieve these unprecedented performances, given the unusual circumstances, emphasizing how they made decisions and evaluated their work along the way. The case is based on comprehensive fieldwork, including observation, interviews, spatial measurement and diagramming, questionnaires, and analysis of videotape of the rehearsal process.

The Idea of an ‘Icon in Sound’ in the Works of John Tavener

Abstract
 
 The aim of this article is to present an innovative concept of the ‘icon in sound’ created by the English composer John Tavener. The first part of the article presents the intermedial and intertextual features of Tavener's work, the second shows the genesis of the concept of ‘icon in sound’, to which three factors have contributed: 1) the composer’s interest in religious topics in his pieces, 2) the composer’s conversion to Orthodoxy, 3) collaboration with Mother Tekla, the author of the texts of many Tavener’s works.
 
 The last, third part of the article describes issues related to the formal structure and musical symbolism present in Tavener’s musical icons. The composer refers to painted icons by composing works characterised by static form and the expression of spirituality, mysticism and inner peace. These features result from the juxtaposing of melismatic structures, inspired by Byzantine music, with repetitive technique and dynamics often characterised by a low intensity. One characteristic of Tavener’s sound icons is a ‘luminous’ sound, achieved through the use of high registers of voices and instruments, which are combined with contemplative and lyrical expression. An important feature of John Tavener’s musical icons was the introduction of archaic elements, resulting primarily from the inspiration that the composer drew from the musical culture of the Orthodox Church (eg the use of Byzantine scales in Mary of Egypt, the introduction of instruments such as simantron in Mary of Egypt).

«Русское» в музыке зарубежных композиторов на «русскую тему»

The article poses the question, how the “Russian element” is viewed by composers who belong to other national cultures. We are able to judge about this by a convincing number of works written on the “Russian theme.” The “Russian element” is realized in it by means of finely illuminative subtitles and an arsenal of musical means and techniques. Very diverse approaches to this theme are systematized and combine three “images” of the “Russian element.” In one of them it is interpreted as an appellation of the state (“russky,” i.e. “Russian” in the sense of the nationality is identified with “rossiyskiy,” i.e., “Russian” in the meaning of pertaining to the state), whose referential substance is expressed by the geographic names (Russia, its rivers, regions, capitals and cities), the North as a geographical dislocation, the landmarks of the historical past, the crowned heads and the events of the life of the tsar’s family. Another aspect shows the social and private lives of people (the “Russian element” is transformed into the “ethnographic”), which reveals by endowing musical compositions titles with words from the Russian lexicon, Russian proper names, attributes of everyday life (“sani,” i.e. sleds or “troika,” i.e. three horse carriage), through the sound of Russian songs and folk tunes, dance genres, timbres of national instruments, fragments from works by Russian composers and texts by Russian poets and writers. The third angle of reclamation of the “Russian element” accentuates Orthodox Christianity as the religious constituent of the Russian world (the “Russian element” manifests itself as the “confessional element”). The religious aspect of the Russian element is revealed by the efforts of such masters as Baldassare Galuppi, Caterino Cavos, John Tavener and Arvo Part. An overview of the numerous examples of manifestation of the “Russian theme” by composers from other countries shows the flexibility and the diffuseness of the geographical and the ethnic boundaries of the “Russian element” in their music. Keywords: Russian theme in the music of Baldassare Galuppi, Caterino Cavos, John Tavener, Arvo Part, Russian folksong.

Dystopia and Transcendence: Tavener’s Music for Children of Men

Abstract Among the selections used for the score to Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men are two works by John Tavener: Eternity’s Sunrise (1997) and Fragments of a Prayer, written, as the composer says, “in response” to the film. The pairing of Tavener’s music with scenes of dystopian violence articulates spiritual processes of witness and grief, processes which find fulfillment in the final scene of the film.

Jews, Nazis, and the Cinema of Hungary: The Tragedy of Success, 1929–44 by Frey David (review)

REVIEWS 785 (dedicated to Britten), his Thirteenth String Quartet and Britten’s Third Cello Suite, described as reflecting the relationship between the two composers ‘in its closest form hitherto’ (p. 255), notably in the Suite’s full statement of the Russian Orthodox Kontakion for the Departed. The chapter ends with a consideration of Shostakovich’s Fifteenth Symphony and his projected operatic version of Chekhov’s ‘The Black Monk’ in relation to Britten’s opera, ‘Death in Venice’. In the conclusion to this admirably comprehensive book, Pyke introduces a number of other composers, including Mieczysław Weinberg, John Tavener and Arvo Pärt, who also showed the influence of Britten and Shostakovich. In sum, Britten’s building of bridges with Soviet culture undoubtedly improved for a while the progress of detente. Seventeen appendices provide valuable additional detail and background to the extensive footnotes. The book is remarkable for the author’s diligence and resourcefulness as well as his studious avoidance of exaggeration and excessive speculation. Rich in ideas, with musical, statistical and pictorial illustrations, this handsome volume is a splendid tribute to one of Rostropovich’s outstanding pupils, the tragically short-lived Professor Alexander Ivashkin who, incidentally, recorded Britten’s complete works for cello. Cameron Pyke’s admirable study deserves a place in all major libraries and on the shelves of many of the composer’s admirers who wish to know more about an important aspect of his life and work. London Arnold McMillin Frey, David. Jews, Nazis, and the Cinema of Hungary: The Tragedy of Success, 1929–44. I. B. Tauris, London and New York, 2018. xvi + 462 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £85.00: $115.00. Hungarian cinema has had a consistent impact on international audiences since the Second World War. Film-makers from Zoltán Fábri to Miklós Jancsó and Béla Tarr have all established their place in cinema history and the achievements of émigré film-makers such as Alexander Korda in the United Kingdom and Michael Curtiz in Hollywood are also well recognized. Yet its cinema before the 1950s remains virtually unknown. While this is scarcely unique in terms of common knowledge, it also applies to the world of academic film history. István Nemeskürty’s Word and Image was translated into English as early as 1968 and there was no other systematic account of the history of Hungarian cinema in English until John Cunningham’s seminal The Hungarian Cinema: From Coffee House to Multiplex in 2004. But even here, the coverage of pre-war cinema is restricted in terms of space. In its extensive coverage of the period SEER, 97, 4, OCTOBER 2019 786 from the 1930s to 1944, David Frey’s new study therefore provides a much needed history of what was then a commercial industry. Referring to the Treaty of Trianon (1920), when the country lost 70 per cent of its pre-war territories, Frey points out that Hungary was transformed overnight from a multi-national state to one in search of a new identity. The cinema and, in particular, sound cinema was ‘to become a central collision point in the quest to define, locate, and discover Hungary’s national nature’ (p. 7). Not only would cinema represent ‘Hungarianness’ both at home and abroad but it would become a major element in the creation of a new identity. Surprisingly, between 1929 and 1942, it was also to become a major commercial success and, by 1942, was one of Europe’s most prolific industries, behind only Germany and Italy in terms of international exports. One of the book’s central themes is the role in this played by Hungarians of Jewish origin. The assimilation of Jewish citizens had been welcomed under the Dual Monarchy and, from a statistical perspective, they counted as ethnic Hungarians. Frey points out that by the 1920s they constituted the core of the middle and upper middle classes. Film distribution was controlled by Jewish Hungarians and nearly all leading producers and directors were of Jewish origin. When Hungary became an ‘ethnically homogenous’ nation state following World War One, he argues that Jews lost their ‘swing constituency’ status. Consequently, antisemitism found a new breeding ground, reaching its...

Дж. Тавенер. Монодрама «Смерть Ивана Ильича»: к вопросу об интерпретации одноимённой повести Л. Н. Толстого

The article examines the particular features of the manifestation of the novelette The Death of Ivan Ilyich by the great Russian classic Leo Tolstoy in the composition of distinctive British composer John Tavener. The motive for posing this question can be seen in the parallels in the two authors’ biographies, in particular, the musician’s attitude towards Russian literature and musical culture. The interpretation is studied upon the consistent analysis of the verbal and musical components of the monodrama. The composer’s detailed work on the libretto’s text redounded in the purposeful reduction and combination of texts in Russian and English. A notable contribution to the interpretation of the novelette is brought in by the elaborate integration of the performing ensemble of the composition, the symbolic timbres of the musical instruments, a laconic leitmotif, expressive intonational characteristic features of the active “forces” of the monodrama, and the depictive artistic dramaturgy. The conducted analysis showed that the composer enhanced the emotional degree of the literary source. This brings the monodrama closer to the other experience of John Tavener’s turning to a Russian classic – the opera A Gentle Creature based on the short-story of Feodor Dostoyevsky. Keywords: John Tavener, Leo Tolstoy, monodrama, symbolism, interpretation, intonation, leitmotif.

SAVING FAITH: STOCKHAUSEN AND SPIRITUALITY

ABSTRACTInvited in 2011 by Robert Sholl and Sander van Maas to contribute to a proposed symposium on the spiritual in late twentieth-century music, I accepted, not because I agreed with the project and its aims, but to defend Stockhausen's character and reputation from convenient misrepresentation. Sin and virtue, spirituality and the spiritual life ask to be addressed in terms of actual works and personal witness – in my own case, not least given the composer's complaint late in life: ‘You have to watch out for Maconie's nihilism’. The test of spirituality inevitably entails scrutinizing the motives of former Stockhausen disciples who changed their minds, among them two English composers of my own generation, Jonathan Harvey and John Tavener, who have since passed away. In 2014 the opening sentence of the present paper provided theologian and Stockhausen-forum editor Thomas Ulrich with an amusing starting-point (‘Suffering? How very Protestant!’) for just the second of a trickle of online discussions of largely pathetic inconsequence.

BBC PROMS 2014: Panufnik and Tavener

Cultures collide and combine in the new works presented in the opening weeks of the 2014 BBC Proms. In music by Roxanna Panufnik and Sir John Tavener, ideas from different religious traditions are brought together. Both composers acknowledge the resulting tensions, but seek to transcend them. Various resolutions are proposed, and with them models for mutual understanding. Utopian ideals, indeed, and none of the works quite reach the lofty goals to which they aspire; but, in each case, the journey proves more interesting than the destination.

Música y sensación sonora: John Tavener

This article aims to examine the act of sound sensation in John Tavener Work (1944-2013) following the idea of logic of sensation created by Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) and phenomenology of the body Xavie Zubiri (1898-1983). Through the concepts of from both philosophers it might be possible to draw the sound experience of vibration that proposes the sacred art of minimalism in the Anglo- Saxon composer.

John Tavener; Manchester International Festival 2013

This concert at the Bridgewater Hall, by the BBC Philharmonic under conductor Tecwyn Evans, featured three world premieres commissioned by MIF 2013 from the late John Tavener, together with Mahamatar from 2000 (featuring Sufi singer Abida Parveen, following a rare UK appearance the previous evening, and performed to a screening of Werner Herzog's 2001 film Pilgrimage) and his 1968 choral piece In Alium.

Recent Music of Hans Abrahamsen

Hans Abrahamsen. Traumlieder: For Violin, Cello, and Piano (1984/2009). Copenhagen: Edition Wilhelm Hansen, [2010]. [Table of contents, p. [i]; score, p. 1-23, and 2 parts. ISBN 978-87-598-6941-3, pub. no. WH 30687C. $41.] Hans Abrahamsen. String Quartet No. 3 (2008). Copenhagen: Edition Wilhelm Hansen, [2008]. [Score, p. 1-10, and 4 parts. ISBN 978-87-5981745-2 (score), 978-87-598-1746-9 (parts), pub. no. WH 30919. $28.40 (score), $26.80 (parts).] Hans Abrahamsen. Schnee: Ten Canons for Nine Instruments (200608). Copenhagen: Edition Wilhelm Hansen, [2010]. [Pref. matter (instrumentation, performance instructions, stage setup, table of contents), p. i-iv; score, p. 1-191. ISBN 978-87-598-2067-4, pub. no. WH 31173. $55.30.] Hans Abrahamsen. Double Concerto: For Violin, Piano, and String Orchestra (2010-2011). Copenhagen: Edition Wilhelm Hansen, 2011. [Pref. matter (instrumentation, performance notes, stage setup, table of contents), p. i-iv; score, p. 1-57. ISBN 978-87-598-2191-6, pub. no. WH 31276. $72.70.] While there are certainly many Danish composers throughout history worth hearing, studying, and performing, it seems as though there is often one per generation that stands out as the reigning champion of Danish music. Niels Gade (1817-1890) the composer, conductor, and violinist, spent the beginning of his career in Germany within Mendelssohn's circle, returning to Denmark at the age of thirty-one due to the First Schleswig War to establish himself in a successful career as a prominent musician and educator. He guided the likes of Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) and Carl Nielsen (1865-1931), the latter who ultimately became known as the greatest Danish composer of all time. Nielsen's successor was, arguably, the prolific Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996) whose neoromantic/post-Sibelius aesthetic was very influential on his pupils, including the current champion of Danish music, Per Norgard (b. 1932), who became equally influential due to his development of the infinity row--a compositional process that resembles Sibelian orchestral textures and explorations in tempos and harmony. Presently, there are several Danes vying to be Norgard's heir. Of course, only time will tell; it could be decades before one emerges. Each of the members of the current generation all exhibit qualities of their predecessors, while moving forward and developing their own ideas. Those who seem to be receiving the most national and international attention are Karl Aage Rasmussen (b. 1947), Poul Ruders (b. 1948), Bent Sorensen (b. 1958), and Hans Abrahamsen (b. 1952), whose music I will discuss here. Beginning his professional career in the 1970s on the tail end of the Danish movement--a response to the complexities inherent in the Darmstadt School throughout central Europe, and not to be confused with the German new simplicity (Neue Einfachheit) nor the Tintinnabulation style found in Arvo Part or John Tavener--Abrahamsen can be perceived, in retrospect, as being somewhat naive, in that the older generation's influence--that of Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Henning Christiansen, and lb Norholm--is a bit obvious, particularly in his orchestral music. However, Abrahamsen's intimate style and rigorous forms, which are obvious features of his recent music, are also noticeable during his early career in pieces such as Herbst for tenor, flute, cello, and guitar (1972), Flowersongs for three flutes (1973), and Universe Birds for female chorus (1973). Throughout the 1970s Abrahamsen continued to develop in distinctive ways. During the late 1970s and 1980s, Abrahamsen enjoyed many successes, professionally, at home and abroad, as well as musically with the imagery and narrative he was able to convey in works such as Winternachl for chamber orchestra (1976-78), Walden for wind quintet (1978), the orchestral pieces Nacht und Trompeten (1981) and Marchenbilder (1984), and Lied in Fall for cello and ensemble (1987). …

From Point to Sphere: Spatial Organization of Sound in Contemporary Music (after 1950)

In this study of spatial organization of sound, that is of "spatialization" in music, the term "spatial" refers to the three-dimensional performance space, not to pitch. "Spatialized music," distinct both from polychoral music and from musical theatre, means music with quasi-spatial structure defined by the composer in the score or in another medium of sound coding (digital or analog recording, specific software). Spatialization includes ensemble dispersion, movement of sounds, performers and audience, juxtaposition and interaction of real and virtual sound sources – every situation in which the position of the sound sources and the acoustic quality of the performance space are given compositional significance. A classification of spatial designs in music is followed by examples illustrating three aspects of spatialization: (1) the expression or simulation of geometrical patterns in music, (2) the movement of sound, (3) the symbolic function of spatial designs and movement. Musical examples and graphs of performer placement are taken from Henry Brant's Millenium II (1954), Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen für drei Orchester (1955-57), Iannis Xenakis's Terrêtektorh (1965-66) and John Tavener's Ultimos Ritos (1972).

John Tavener round-up

JOHN TAVENER: The Veil of the Temple. Choir of the Temple Church, Holst Singers, Patricia Rozaro (sop) c. Stephen Layton. RCA 82876661542.TAVENER: Lament for Jerusalem. Patricia Rozario (sop), Christopher Joey (counter-ten), Sydney Philharmonic Chorus, Australian Youth Orchestra c. Thomas Woods. ABC Classics 476 160–5.TAVENER: Birthday Sleep; Butterfly Dreams; The Second Coming; Schuon Hymen; As one who has slept; The Bridal Chamber; Exhortation and Kohima; Shunya. Polyphony c. Stephen Layton. Hyperion CDA67475.

Review: Lifting the Veil: The Biography of Sir John Tavener

Lifting the Veil: The Biography of Sir John Tavener By Piers Dudgeon . xvii + 270. (Portrait, London , 2003, £20 . ISBN 0-7499-5033-X.)

Alexander Kastalsky: His Life and Music by Svetlana s> Zvereva Stuart Campbell (review)

338 SEER, 82, 2, 2004 NZSJ is published annually. Judging from the present volume and its predecessors, the journal well deserves its place on the shelves of serious libraries. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies DEREK BROWER University College London Zvereva, Svetlana.Alexander Kastalsky: His LifeandMusic.Translatedby Stuart Campbell. Ashgate, Aldershotand Burlington,VT, 2003. xxii + 323 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. Glossary. Musical extracts.Index. ?47.50. ALEKSANDR KASTAL'SKII (I856-I 926) was one of the pioneers of the study of Russian church music and, indeed, a prominent though not outstanding composer of it, aswell as of some less memorable secularworks.Almost all his life he was closely associatedwith the Moscow Synodal School. Togetherwith his colleague and loyal friend Stepan Smolenskii (I848-I909), who also figuresvery extensively in this book, Kastal'skiiresurrectedand transformed his country'ssacredmusic, at a time of extremelyrapidculturaldevelopment. His researchto some extent laid the groundworkfor severalfarbetter known pieces of music, such as Rakhmaninov'sAllNightVigil(I 9 I5) and Stravinskii's Svadebka (LesNoces,I923), to name but two. Svetlana Zvereva'swide-ranging study follows her well received Russian monograph (Aleksandr Kastal'skii. Idei, tvorchestvo, sud'ba,Moscow, I999), but is not simply a translation, since it incorporates considerable new research, and includes an annotated index of names, a bibliography, and a list of Kastal'skii'spublished writings about music (to complement the list of his publishedcompositions).Music examples are also a welcome new feature, and the glossaryof termswill undoubtedlybe useful to anglophone readers accustomed to a quite differentset of words for describingthe variousaspectsof church music. Svetlana Zvereva combines erudition with a very readable, sometimes conversational style, inspired perhaps by the witty, informal letters of her subjectwhich are widely quoted. The headings of the book's twenty chapters (some of which are slightly annotated here for the purpose of information) range from the totally straightforward to the whimsical: 'The Kastalsky Family'; 'The Origins of Reform' [of the Synodal School]; 'In Search of a 'Russian Style' [in the pre-nationalist period]; 'The Nation - A Powerful Force'[in the i88os]; "'Moscow will come into its own!"'; 'HistoryStretching Back into the Past'; 'Smolensky's Reforms' [of the Synodal School where 'adults and children alike were coarse, ignorant and lazy; fights and foul language were the norm', p. 46]; '"New Antiquity"' [Smolenskii's realism about Kastal'skii's'very modest talent', p. 65]; 'Kastalsky'sDiscovery' [his fame greatly boosted by a visit of Konstantin Pobedonostev to the School, p. 63]; 'At the Crossroads' [the Synodal School threatened]; 'The Moscow School of Ethnographers'[the musical influence of folk songs on church and othermusic];'HistoricalReconstructions'[Kastal'skii'squasi-operaticworks]; 'All-Night Vigil' [Kastal'skii's rather cliched attempts at writing one]; A Conservatoire for Sacred Music' [the best years of the Synodal School, REVIEWS 339 I9 I0- I917]; 'At the Height of his Fame' [Kastal'skii as Director of the School in these years]; 'Musical "Plays"; [unperformedfolktheatricalspectaclesand Kastal'skii'sunfulfilledcinematographictalent, p. I56]; "'Requiem for Fallen Brothers"' [in World War I]; 'The Late Sacred Choral Music' [only ten sacred pieces written in the years before the I917 Revolution]; 'The End of the Synodal School's History'; and "'Wretched Old Age has set in"' [work, particularlyon folksong, after the Revolution, and unfinishedprojects]. The Epilogue is devoted to the friendship between Kastal'skii and the brilliant musicologist BorisAstaf'ev (pseud. Igor'Glebov, I884-1949) who was one of the few people to fully appreciate Kastal'skii'sworth in both parts of his life which the author refers to as 'divided into two mutually exclusive parts' (p. 222). To an extent this monograph is the history of the Synodal School and, beyond it, of one majorbranch of Russian church music, both as a subjectfor palaeographical research and as material to be mined for what Kastal'skii termed restavratsiia. It is a storylittle known in the West, despite the growth of interest in Orthodox church music, personified in this country by John Tavener (b. I944), for instance. The twenty-one examples are clearlyprinted (byRussian Music Publishing in Moscow), with the wordsprinted in Russianwith the music, and in English translationat the bottom of the page. Their numeration, however is eccentric and non-consecutive, beginning with Ex.g.i. Other aspects of the...

THE RETURN OF RELIGION IN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

The intent of this article is to show some evidence towards the hypothesis that takes the relatively recent (re)turn of art towards religion as a part of a larger spiritual phenomenon rather than as an exclusively artistic trend. The art and the views of some contemporary composers whose art expresses the return of the sacred, mainly Henryk Gorecki Arvo Part and John Tavener, are examined here Music by the three composers who can be said to represent the New Simplicity, an artistic trend that epitomizes the vanguard of art while expressing spiritual and religious contemporary concerns at the same time, is discussed within the philosophical background of the end of modernism and the return of the sacred.

All at Sea? On the Eve of the Barbican Festival Devoted to His Music, John Tavener talks to Malcolm Crowthers about the Sea, Bells, Religion and Life in Greece

All at Sea? On the Eve of the Barbican Festival Devoted to His Music, John Tavener talks to Malcolm Crowthers about the Sea, Bells, Religion and Life in Greece

John Tavener's 'Akathist of Thanksgiving'

John Tavener's 'Akathist of Thanksgiving'