Published on 26 Oct 2011 // The Herald Scotland // Kate Molleson
Unlike Bach’s Passions, Lang doesn’t feature characters as such. There is no evangelist to narrate, no identifiable Match Girl. Instead, all roles are sung by a small vocal ensemble whose lapping lines weave and repeat to create a mesmerising reverie. “To be honest,” says the composer, “I’m not really interested in the Match Girl. The piece isn’t about individuals; it’s about us, the crowd, the community that passes her by.”
And while Bach punctuated his Passions with well-known chorales so that the original audience – a Lutheran church congregation – could sing along, Lang says that kind of affirmative participation is not his point. “Bach’s chorales were about shared experience, but I’m not out to create believers. I think that classical music these days is about giving individual space for reflection.”
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