Sure On This Shining Night - Lauridsen on piano

[slouchsock8]

This was not Stroope. I believe this was Cherry Hill's conductor, if I'm not mistaken. otherwise, it's an associate conductor.

And to reiterate, Lauridsen starts the piece out on the piano, without conductor input, so he did, in fact, set the tempo.

[MisterHowe]

Regarding all the tempo squabble:

When I compose, I write something that sounds one way in my mind, but that mental interpretation is never the same as the actual performance. That may seem frustrating or inconsistent, but it is not. The composer is only one component of a piece, and there are other artists involved in bringing the music to life. Each has a degree of license.

This tempo is not incorrect. However, I doubt Lauridsen would be unhappy with the same performance 15 clicks slower.

[slouchsock8]

@Misterhowe thanks for your views. Just to let everybody know, when we rehearsed this piece WITH Lauridsen the day before, he sat down at the piano and told us that he likes to take it faster than we were rehearsing it. He said that he likes to play with the tempo (especially at the piano intro)--pulling and taking time and moving ahead with phrases. So for those of you who claim that it should be slower, that's your interpretation. But in this case, the composer and conductor have chosen this.

[llelaura]

Great music!!! great voices!!!

[vatorudy]

Actually i think the the tempo is about right! im preparing to sing this song for honors choir and every time i've heard it played its been at this tempo! this is an awesome song and a beautiful one! this is really good!

[Smart1033]

I really lke this piece and i love that morten lauridsen is playing this on the piano but the thing is the singers are too rigid and emotionless; this song needs emotion flowing out of it and im just saying they didnt have it.

[lordofdastrings76]

its lauridsens piece. he can take the tempo however he wants to.

[seahawds]

BEE-U-TI-TULL!

[mezzovivere84]

yo, Lauridsen PLAYED IT, how are you going to argue with that? I was there on that stage, singing. It was amazing. Listen to his Rose Cycle. Ugh - so good! No. 2 kills me - he loves D major

[belfastscots]

So reminiscent of Vaughn Williams, Barber and Faure all mixed together. Yummy.

Chris

[johnnygeekiwi]

I have sung this at lots of tempos and I have to agree that this version moves along so fast that some of the beauty is lost.

[slouchsock8]

Lauridsen in rehearsal said to move it along and not drag it too slowly

[Tan1723]

Most likely the best video of this song on Youtube.

[wessicajalker]

thats kinda fast, a lot faster than ours

[jakem1000]

hooray for Mr. Lauridsen and his beautiful playing! i thought the tempo was perfect! the women could be a tad darker for college...but it's still very good.

[slouchsock8]

well keep in mind this was 3 groups- two high school and one college

[choirguy75]

Lauridsen on piano or not I still think the tempo is too fast. Just because Lauridsen is sitting at the piano doesn't mean that he is the one responsible for keeping the tempo. I do see a conductor in this video.

[TenorDiva86]

yeah but I think he would've mentioned that it was too fast to the conductor in the many rehearsals we had with the guy

[0peradork]

when lauridsen's at the piano there is no conductor :p

[fiveoctaves]

Lauridsen is setting the tempo at the beginning of the piece, not the conductor. His hands don't move until just before the singers' entrance. I sang in the world premier of Nocturnes with the composer at the piano and at many of our rehearsals. This tempo is effectively what he wanted.

[bassrob2]

But you don't think the conductor would want to take the tempo the composer intended?

If Lauridsen was my pianist and we were performing one of his works, I'd sure as hell ask him what tempo he wrote it.

[flatt1942]

I'm almost POSITIVE that Lauridsen would have probably said something if he thought it was too fast.

[MaiaCorinne]

We're singing this at all-state chorus in Georgia. I absolutely love all of Lauridsen's compositions. I was so excited when I got my music today and "Sure on this Shining Night" was on top!

[avatar71]

I do disagree with the poster below; I love this tempo. I could see it being a tad darker, especially in the female voices. The pitches were quite solid.

[MeltingxInxYourxEyes]

I'm auditioning for an honor choir using this song and the accompanament track they provided for rehearsal is so much slower than the tempo marked in the song. It sounds so much better at the right tempo!

[ExVash]

The right tempo? This is Lauridsen performing with them on the piano, and he is *very* strict with his tempos.

If anything, this is the correct tempo.

[slouchsock8]

I believe MeltingxInxYourxEyes was saying that their audition tape was the wrong tempo, and this performance (as led by Lauridsen) is the much better right tempo.

[ExVash]

Ah, I see. My bad.

[raawwrIMaDINOSAUR]

this piece is simply genius. morten lauridsen is such an amazing composer. my choir sang this to a quicker tempo. i think that this performance is a bit too "elderly church choir". still brilliant, however.

[TenorDiva86]

I think if it were any faster it would sound silly.

[choirnerd99]

it's nice to see Morten Lauridsen actually performing this piece, Lauridsen is very strict with his music, and has said before that he wrights the tempo marks for a reason, and when people send him recordings and they sing it much slower or faster then he indicated he doesn't listen to it. So its nice to see what tempo he likes and how he likes to play with it. So all the people wanting to send their choirs performances of this song to him know not to wonder to far away from this tempo.

[fiveoctaves]

Lauridsen's interpretation of James Agee's poem is of a rapturous and joyful nature. This is why he intended it to be performed at this tempo.

[prestonwellis]

I performed this in Europe for the DoD High School Honors Choir...it truly is a masterpiece...Lauridsen lets the music flow from the soul. It is very unique, having a very unfamilliar, very melodic feel, different from his others...A nice change I believe...

[McCartney109]

We are performing this piece at the Maine All State music festival. It has some beautiful harmonic sections towards the middle of the piece.

[GiygasMinion]

My choir is performing this song this semester.  It's incredibly beautiful. Good singing, guys.

[kittratty]

well, i like this song. actually, i adore this song to no end, but when my choir sang it, we sang it slower. it sounds really nice here, but i prefer the slower version we took it at. it fits better with the music. and i realize the composer is right there, but i still prefer it to be slower.

[JustinTCoulter]

Yes I agree... We moved our tempo the same way they did, but in general, my choir did this slower

[mmabq]

somewhere on these interwebs is a video of a Chinese (?) chorus and most of the bashing comments are about the tempo being too fast. I can't seem to find that video again, but they were much less speedy and yet this is accompanied by the composer....awesome direction and flow of the phrases. Bet the other video's commenters would find something wrong with it, but I can't.