Publisher's Synopsis
Memento Mori: A Guide to Contemporary Memorial Music presents a useful reference listing of modern settings of the requiem and other forms of memorial music. It is a follow up to the author's previous work, Dies Irae: A Guide to Requiem Music. Robert Chase brings a relatively unexplored territory of musical repertoire to public attention, offering descriptions of previously unfamiliar or little known contemporary choral works devoted to the memorial theme. Through discussions of 71 composers with compositions from six continents, the book offers a general historical record of 20th and 21st century memorial composition and shows a variety of musical styles representing different religious and secular traditions. Presented alphabetically by composer, each entry contains a brief biography emphasizing the composer's choral output and an in-depth description of the work, including its origin, edition(s) of the music, length of the composition, structure and orchestration of the piece, and any known recordings. Memento Mori also prints numerous poetic texts, such as Armenian, Latvian, and German poetry, translated here for the first time into English. An extensive bibliography, a list of over 400 additional contemporary composers and their works, and appendixes of English translations of Latin texts of the Roman Catholic requiem mass conclude this valuable reference.
