József Karai
About the composer
József Karai was born in Budapest, Hungary, November 8, 1927. He is specially dedicated to choral works and has written about 200 choral settings of Hungarian poems. He uses texts in different languages, Latin, English, German, Italian and Spanish. He is regarded as a renewer of choral sound, using aleatory, improvisation and repetition techniques, but always pays attention to the possibilities of the human voice.
About the Stabat Mater
| Date: | 1984 |
| Performers: | Mixed choir |
| Length: | 6.52 minutes |
| Particulars: | The work is divided into three sections, and the first two end in descending glissandos on the words "gladius" and "filio". At some stage allegorically resolved passages are used to produce the effect of a rhythmical delivery of words that sounds like the murmuring of a crowd. |
| Textual variations: | It is not exactly clear to me what stanzas are sung. I detected stanzas 1, 8, 2, 7, 5, 6, 9 and 20, which appear in this order, but I may have missed one. |
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Information about the recording
| CD: | Hungaroton HCD 31348: József Karai, Choral Works |
| More info: | The CD offers a choice from the later choral works of Karai. Recorded in the Catholic Church of Blessed Eusebius in Békásmegyer, Budapest, in 1996. |
| Choir: | Budapest Academic Choral Society |
| Conductor: | Gábor Hollerung |
| Other works: | De Profundis(Psalm 130) |
| Code: | KAR-01 |
