Morten Lauridsen

Morten Lauridsen (born February 27, 1943 in Colfax, Washington) is an American composer with Danish roots. He grew up in Portland, Oregon, and attended Whitman College and the University of Southern California, where he studied advanced composition. Among his early teachers were Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens, Robert Lynn, and Harold Owen. He is a long-time professor of Composition at USC, and was also Composer in Residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1994 to 2001.

Lauridsen's composition has won multiple awards, including the ASCAP Standard Award (in 1982) and the Phi Kappa Phi Award for Creative Works (in 1984).

Along with James Mulholland and Eric Whitacre, Lauridsen is one of America's most-performed contemporary choral composers, and writes both sacred and secular music. Much of Lauridsen's appeal comes from his coloristic harmonies via added note tertian chords, perhaps most notably a 'signature' harmonic structure of a first-inversion major triad with an added tone a perfect fourth or major second above the chord root.

His five-movement work Lux Aeterna (1997) for chorus and orchestra has become popular in the United States, with numerous performances, recordings and radio broadcasts.

[edit] Choral works
Ave Dulcissima Maria (2004, written for the Harvard Glee Club)
Ave Maria (1997)
Be Still, My Soul, Be Still
A Winter Come (on poems by Howard Moss)
I. When Frost Moves Fast
II. As Birds Come Nearer
III. The Racing Waterfall
IV. A Child Lay Down
V. Who Reads By Starlight
VI. And What Of Love
Les Chansons des Roses (1993)[3] (settings of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke)
I. En Une Seule Fleur
II. Contre Qui, Rose
III. De Ton Rêve Trop Plein
IV. La Rose Complete
V. Dirait-on
Lux Aeterna (1997)
I. Introitus
II. In Te, Domine, Speravi
III. O Nata Lux
IV. Veni, Sancte Spiritus
V. Agnus Dei
Madrigali: Six "Firesongs" on Italian Renaissance Poems
I. Ov'è, Lass', Il Bel Viso?
II. Quando Son Piu Lontan
III. Amor, Io Sento L'alma
IV. Io Piango
V. Luci Serene e Chiare
VI. Se Per Havervi, Oime
Mid-Winter Songs (1980) (on poems by Robert Graves)
I. Lament for Pasiphae
II. Like Snow
III. She Tells Her Love While Half Asleep
IV. Mid-Winter Waking
V. Intercession in Late October
Nocturnes (2005)
I. Sa Nuit d'Été
II. Soneto de la Noche
III. Sure on this Shining Night
O Magnum Mysterium (1994)
Ubi Caritas et Amor
Cuatro Canciones Sobre Poesias de Federico Garcia Lorca