|
By Glen Nelson
Work of LDS Composer Boren and Librettist Nelson on Temple Square
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- On Saturday, November 11 at 7:30, the Temple
Square Assembly Hall will feature new orchestral/vocal works by
Murray Boren and Glen Nelson as part of its recital series of LDS
music and musicians. Composer-in-residence at Brigham Young
University, Murray Boren, has composed an evening of new religious
music to texts by New York author Glen Nelson, to be performed by
soprano Susan Boren.
Boren's music has been played and recorded internationally. Most
recently, his Symphony No. 2 was premiered at the Moscow Conservatory
in Russia. For the Assembly Hall concert (the same program will be
played at BYU on November 7) Boren and Nelson have created three
specifically-LDS concert works. The main work is a symphony-length
composition called "Seven Sisters" about modern LDS women. In
another large work, "After Words," Nelson quotes three biblical
stories and then imagines what happens after the scriptural story
ends. All of the works on the program are written for soprano and
symphony orchestra, conducted by Boren.
Nelson says, "If you think about it, there's almost no serious
concert music that is specifically LDS. I've heard a lot of sacred
music that is sacrament meeting-friendly, and some wonderful music
written for our most accomplished choirs, but if you're looking for
the kind of music that aspires to be great in the sense of
Mozart-great or Stravinsky great, outside of choral music, the pool
isn't very deep, yet."
|
