The Lamb
On being reminded of John Tavener
We were at Ely Cathedral last night for Baby G’s school held a “Nine lessons” service, where she was singing in the main choir. Generally an excellent evening. A particular standout for me was the school’s chamber choir, and their performance of ‘The Lamb’ by John Tavener. This was somewhat of a Proustian moment for me.
When I was a moody teenager, I had a few CD’s of choral and religious music that featured Taveneren.wikipedia.org, Arvo Pärten.wikipedia.org and various others. It acted as a bit of a gateway to my love of modernist music in general, and I slightly left it behind when I fell down the Philip Glassen.wikipedia.org rabbit hole, falling for his drama and movie soundtracks. (I was a bit of a movie nerd at the time)
Particularly key for me is the feeling of silence and space in Tavener’s music. By way of example, in the second bar of the Lamb where the second voices provide that challenging harmonic contrast, then resolve back to the same initial G. In what is only a few notes, a feeling of space has been created, constrained and released. Then a few bars later, he fills that space with warmth.
I’m no music scholar, but the opening bars remind me of ‘Kaval Sviri’ - a similar sense of opening, closing and releasing a harmonic space.
To be honest, I didn’t know anything about Tavener, other than there was another composer of the same nameen.wikipedia.org from the 16th century (and I’m only aware of him because of his connection with Tattershall, where we lived for a while). Confusingly, Tavener the later claimed to be a direct descendant and worked in a similar style and religious context. If you’re interested in the earlier Tavener, check out Missa Corona Spineaopen.spotify.com as performed by the Tallis Scholars.
The more recent Tavener’s potted biography on Spotify is a wild ride, and the extended version on Wikipedia paints a picture of someone that was looking for spiritual meaning in his life, as much as his music.
I’d love to check out Tavener’s Veil of the Templeopen.spotify.com although at 7-odd hours long, it might prove to be quite the undertaking. I’m going to try something a little more bite-size, like ‘Prayer of the Heart’, the piece that he composed for Björk.
If you’ve read this and have comments or, even better, recommendations. Please do comment on the post below…
Cover image: Ely Cathedral Choir, by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ely_Cathedral_Choir,_Cambridgeshire,_UK_-_Diliff.jpgcommons.wikimedia.org