Written for the choir of Westminster Abbey, Harvey's Missa Brevis is an inspiring piece for any cathedral choir or ambitious mixed-voice ensemble.
Music set to words translated into English from a poem by Jalal Al-Din Rumi. This piece was commissioned and first performed by the National Youth Choir of Great Britain in Fiji on 23 July 1996.
The ensuing web of melody at first intertwined with the trumpet in close canon, and then - by the device of running some of the tape tracks at half-speed - plunged far below the trumpet's plangent inc...
. . . luminously scored and graced by a good deal of glorious vocal writing... Paul Griffiths, The Musical Times, January 1981, Instrumentation: 0000 - 1110 - perc(1): claves/2 susp.cym/vib/2 wdbl/2 s...
This work is for piano and CD. The tape part retunes the piano, so that there are microtonal tensions between the live piano and the tape and a close contrapuntal relationship between the two.
. . . lush chords and sonorities, ecstatic rhythmic energy within constantly changing metres, intricate birdsong-like arabesques and a primary-coloured approach to the orchestra. Stephen Banfield, The...
Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012) was a British composer who studied at St Johns, Cambridge and Princeton, and who later taught at various universities and conservatoires across Europe and North America. Hi...
Body Mandala was commissioned by the BBC for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in 2006. The work is influenced by purification rituals in Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries and is arranged for a large Orc...
Speakings for orchestra and electronics is undoubtably one of Jonathan Harvey's most important and ambitious works. Composed in 2008, it utilises a unique process of electronic transformation develope...
Wagner Dream by Jonathan Harvey is an opera in nine scenes for soloists, actors, chorus, large ensemble and electronics. Instrumentation: Vairochana (B)/Ananda (T)/Prakriti (S)/Mother of Prakriti(M)/B...
In these canticles written for the 1978 Southern Cathedrals Festival, Harvey follows in the tradition of Britten and Tippett in fusing ancient ritual with thoroughly modern means of expression. Choral...
Resurrection is based on simple vocal triads that perfectly suit a resonant building. It is ceremonial and repetitive in character, in short, sacred music rather than secular.
The text of this work is by Bishop J Cosin, based on Veni Creator Spiritus. The music is based on a pentatonic chord throughout, and reflects the floating rhythms of plainchant.
Commissioned by the University of Sussex to celebrate their Silver Jubilee in 1986, God is Our Refuge sets Psalm 46 and is one of Harvey's easier choral works offering all choirs an ideal introduction...
This celebratory anthem is a vivid setting of Psalm 148, full of rhythmic drive and exuberant choral writing. It well demonstrates Harvey's skill in using a contemporary idiom that nevertheless appeal...
