Brian Schober
About the composer
Brian Schober was born in New Jersey, USA, in 1951. He studied composition and organ at the Eastman School of Music and, based on a grant by the French government, studied in Paris with Olivier Messiaen and others. His career, as an organist as well as composer, has been a successful one, as is proven by the many prizes and awards he received, for instance from the French Cultural Ministry and the American Music Center. Though his music is in a modern idiom, he clearly finds his inspiration frequently in the past, as is proven by vocal works like the Stabat Mater, a Te Deum, a Missa Brevis, and organ works like Victimae pascali laudes en Toccatas and Fantasias. He has composed works for other instruments like piano, violoncello and marimba and seems to have a special love for percussion, as percussionists often play an important part in his work.
About the Stabat Mater
| Date: | 1994 |
| Performers: | Mixed female chorus, three percussionists and soprano saxophone |
| Length: | 22.02 minutes |
| Particulars: | As far as I can hear the work is divided into 8 parts. It has an unique quality by the contrast of the women's voices with the percussionists. After quiet opening sections an emotional outburst follows in the stanzas where Jesus dies. Then again some quieter sections, embedded in sorrowful notes from the saxophone, bring us to the end. |
| Textual variations: | The "Analecta"-version of the text is used, but with the following changes: |
| Colour bar: |
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Information about the recording
| CD: | Ethereal Records ER-125: The music of Brian Schober |
| More info: | Recorded at the Church of the Heavenly Rest, New York, in March 2000. |
| Choir: | The New York Treble Singers |
| Conductor: | Virginia Davidson |
| Soloists: | James Baker, Frank Cassara, James Preiss, percussion |
| Other works: | Te Deum for mixed chorus and prepared piano |
| Code: | SCHO-01 |
