American composer
Morten Johannes Lauridsen III (born February 27, 1943) is an American composer and teacher. A National Medal of Arts recipient (2007), he was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1994 to 2001, and is professor emeritus of composition at the USC Thornton School of Music, where he taught for fifty-two years until his retirement in 2019.
Biography.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, Lauridsen worked as a Forest Service firefighter and lookout on an isolated tower near Mount St. Helens. He attended Whitman College for 2 years, before traveling south to study composition at the University of Southern California with Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens, Robert Linn, and Harold Owen. He began teaching at USC in 1967.
In 2006, Lauridsen was named an "American Choral Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007, he received the National Medal of Arts from the president in a White House ceremony, "for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide."
His works have been recorded on more than 200 CDs, five of which have received Grammy Award nominations, including "O Magnum Mysterium" by the Tiffany Consort, "A Company of Voices" by Conspirare, "Sound The Bells" by The Bay Brass, and two all-Lauridsen discs entitled "Lux Aeterna" by the Los Angeles Master Chorale led by Paul Salamunovich and "Nocturnes" with the Polyphony choir and the Britten Sinfonia conducted by Stephen Layton.
A recipient of numerous grants, prizes, and commissions, Lauridsen chaired the composition department at the USC Thornton School of Music from 1990 to 2002 and founded the school's advanced studies program in film scoring. He has held residencies as guest composer/lecturer at over 100 universities and has received honorary doctorates from Oklahoma State University, Westminster Choir College, King's College, University of Aberdeen, and Whitman College. In 2014 he was invited to be honorary artistic president of Interkultur/World Choir Games. In 2016 he was awarded the ASCAP Foundation Life in Music Award. In late February 2020, via an update on his Facebook page, Lauridsen revealed he had retired from the Thornton School of Music in the spring of 2019, after having taught classes there for over 50 years.
Lauridsen divides his time between Los Angeles and his home in the San Juan Archipelago off the northern coast of Washington State.
Compositions.
His eight vocal cycles and two collections—"Les Chansons des Roses" (Rilke), "Mid-Winter Songs" (Graves), "A Winter Come" (Moss), "Madrigali: Six "FireSongs" on Italian Renaissance Poems", "Nocturnes" (Rilke, Neruda, and Agee), "Cuatro Canciones" (Lorca), "Four Madrigals on Renaissance Texts", "A Backyard Universe", "Five Songs on American Poems" (Moss, Witt, Gioia, and Agee) and "Lux Aeterna"—his series of sacred a cappella motets ("O magnum mysterium", "Ave Maria", "O Nata Lux", "Ubi caritas et amor", and "Ave Dulcissima Maria") and numerous instrumental works are featured regularly in concert by artists and ensembles throughout the world. "O Magnum Mysterium, Dirait-on" (from "Les Chansons des Roses"), "O Nata Lux" (from "Lux Aeterna"), and "Sure On This Shining Night" (from "Nocturnes") are best-selling choral octavos.
His musical approaches to the texts he sets are diverse, ranging from direct to abstract in response to characteristics (subject matter, language, style, structure, historical era, etc.). His Latin sacred settings, such as the "Lux Aeterna" and motets, often reference Gregorian chant, as well as Medieval and Renaissance techniques while blending them with contemporary sounds. Other works such as the "Madrigali" and "Cuatro Canciones" are highly chromatic or atonal. His music has an overall lyricism and is tightly constructed around melodic and harmonic motifs.
Referring to Lauridsen's religious music, the musicologist and conductor Nick Strimple said he is "the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic, [...] Lauridsen's probing, serene work contains an elusive and indefinable ingredient which leaves the impression that all the questions have been answered." From 1993, Lauridsen's music rapidly increased in international popularity, and by the end of the century he had eclipsed Randall Thompson as the most frequently performed American choral composer.
Recordings.
Over 200 recordings of works by Morten Lauridsen have been released, including five that have received Grammy nominations.
CDs:
Sheet music sales and performances.
Morten Lauridsen is currently one of America's most performed composers, with hundreds of performances each year throughout the world in venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Vatican, Sydney Opera House, and Westminster Abbey. Over one million copies of his scores have been sold and his "Dirait-on", "O Magnum Mysterium," and "O Nata Lux" have become best-selling octavos.
Recordings of Morten Lauridsen's compositions are featured regularly on radio broadcasts throughout the United States, and he is a frequent interview guest on radio and television programs, including a KCET "Life and Times" program, the national broadcast of "A Portrait of Morten Lauridsen" on "First Art", and a nationally broadcast Christmas Day feature on NPR's "Weekend Edition" with Scott Simon. He has been profiled in several extended articles, including in the "Los Angeles Times" "Calendar", "Seattle Times", "Choral Journal", "Choir and Organ", Chorus America's "Voice", "Fanfare Magazine", and the "Wall Street Journal". He has received over four hundred commission requests, including from Harvard University, the American Choral Director's Association, and the Pacific Chorale, and is a frequent guest lecturer and Artist/Composer-in-Residence.
His principal publishers are Peermusic (New York/Hamburg) and Peer's affiliate, Faber Music (London).
Teaching life.
In addition to these positions, Lauridsen has served as artistic advisor on the boards of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Dale Warland Singers, I Cantori (New York), USC Scoring for Films/TV Program, National Children's Chorus, Creative Kids Education Foundation, Volti (San Francisco Chamber Singers), New York City Master Chorale, Jacaranda, and Angeles Chorale.
Publications.
"It's a Still Life That Runs Deep: The Influence of Zurbaran's Still Life With Lemons, Oranges and a Rose on Morten Lauridsen's Composition 'O Magnum Mysterium'", "Wall Street Journal", February 21, 2009
Foreword to "Evoking Sound" by James Jordan, GIA Publications, 2009
"Morten Lauridsen on Composing Choral Music," a chapter in "Contemporary Choral Music Composers", GIA Publications, 2007
Liner notes for "Randall Thompson—The Peaceable Kingdom", Schola Cantorum of Oxford, Hyperion Records
"Remembering Halsey Stevens," National Association of Composer Journal, 1990
Documentary.
The 2012 documentary film "Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen" portrays the composer at his Waldron Island retreat and in rehearsals in California and Scotland. Commentaries about the composer by poet Dana Gioia, conductor Paul Salamunovich, composer/conductor Paul Mealor, composer Alex Shapiro, and conductor Robert Geary, along with performances by the San Francisco Choral Society, University of Aberdeen Choral Society and Orchestra, Con Anima Chamber Choir, and Volti, are featured. Works include "O Magnum Mysterium", "Lux Aeterna", "Madrigali", "Dirait-on", and "Nocturnes", with soundtracks by Polyphony and the Britten Sinfonia (conducted by Stephen Layton), The Singers: Minnesota Choral Artists (conducted by Matthew Culloton), and the Dale Warland Singers (conducted by Dale Warland).
References.
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