John Tavener is best known for his glorious religious choral music. For Mother’s Day, this is his “Hymn to the Mother of God”. It is a transcendental experience to listen to it; like many things in the spiritual realm, it is simultaneously simple and complex.

The piece is scored for two choirs of approximately ten voices each. It’s harmonically driven (the melody isn’t particularly prominent or memorable), yet the harmony itself is simple – a choral hymn which doesn’t stray far from the home key. There are really only three phrases in the whole piece, and the third phrase is identical to the first. So what makes it sound other-worldly? First, each ten-voice choir is singing in a huge range in thick chords; second, each choir sings the same music three beats apart. The second choir ends up sounding like an echo of the first. This causes lots of notes to momentarily clash in dissonance, but then resolve to form a powerful consonance.

Short, simple, but wow does it pack a punch!

Remember that Seinfeld episode that turned a stupid catchphrase into a national sensation? ***

Thomas Morley (friend and composer of no less than Shakespeare) was in last week’s post: “April is in my Mistress’ Face“. His “Now is the Month of Maying” is another madrigal with seasonal references. This time, though, his December-hearted lover has been warmed by the May sun:

The romantic era produced some of the corniest music ever. Sentimentality was just what one did in the 1800s. To celebrate this Arbor Day, here’s a little ditty by Henry Russell with words by George Pope Morris. It’s more about sentimental memories than the tree itself, and is quite possibly the corniest piece of music ever written.