March 29, 201213 yr Hi! I'm an Australian composer doing a PhD called "creating text and music for oratorios". My library doesn't have many contemporary scores in my field, and I'm wondering if anyone can suggest some good (or even not so good) secular oratorios from the last 20 years that I could check out? I'm especially interested in ones with English libretti... PLEASE HELP!!! Thanks :)
March 29, 201213 yr I cannot help you. The closest thing I can think of is Schnittkes Nagasaki oratotium, which isn't less thatn 20 years old and isn't english. It is a cool piece though:)
March 30, 201213 yr Author Thanks for the suggestions, I'll check them out. JrCramer - Thanks! Tokkemon - I've written an oratorio with a fictional libretto (by me) based on bushfire stories from around Australia. So I'm interested in seeing how other contemporary composers have dealt with fictional, secular oratorio libretti, and how they've still managed to maintain the 'contemplative' nature of oratorio using those subjects. Thanks for the Monty Python suggestion too, I'll check it out!
April 1, 201213 yr Michael Finnissy's Maldon (1990), which is a very powerful anti-war thing for vocal soloist, choir and ensemble based on an Old English poem, which in turn is based on the Battle of Maldon in medieval England. It may not quite fit the description of "oratorio" as closely as you want, though. A famous one that was written in 1968 but revised in 1990 is Hans Werner Henze's Der Floß der Medusa; John Adams' relatively well-known oratorio El Niño was composed the following year in 2000. Gloria Coates' Cantata da Requiem: WW II Poems for Peace is from 1972, but maybe it will be of use to you.
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