The music proves striking…in this glowingly committed performance by the Oxford chamber choir Commotio…The performance [is] superbly sympathetic.

This immediately effective music certainly gets right away from outworn Howells-derived conventions. Commotio provide excellent, fully committed performances.

James Whitbourn’s Celestial Sounds

James Whitbourn’s Luminosity expands the experience of classical music beyond the edges of the traditional map of classical style.

English composer James Whitbourn, born in 1963, is part of a new generation of musicians who are no longer bound to the notion that contemporary music needs to challenge the listener with difficulty.

His new CD is called Luminosity, and it includes the choral piece A Prayer of Desmond Tutu. Tutu himself speaks on the recording.

One of the most interesting aspects of this piece is the composer’s combination of classical choral style with elements of African music, heard especially in the percussion.

But Whitbourn isn’t stitching these styles together in some artificial attempt at multiculturalism. Instead, his combination of different styles flows naturally. I call this music “pancultural.” The composer hears styles usually perceived as different as one broad tradition. Most important, the music sounds authentic, honest and not the least bit contrived.

Luminosity is the title work of the CD. At the outset, a musical drone creates an archaic sense of time in which the chorus sings. A solo viola plays throughout this work, inflected by the melodic style of the Indian sitar.

This album is extraordinary. It expands the experience of classical music beyond the edges of the traditional map of classical styles. The word “luminosity” describes the nature of celestial light, and the music of composer James Whitbourn is a celebration of that light—peaceful, radiant and clear.

Here’s a dazzling collection of unashamedly tonal new music from the extravagantly talented James Whitbourn…[the music] glows with hypnotic brilliance, fusing powerful vocal writing with seductive Eastern influences.

Born in 1963, James Whitburn is one of the most approachable of the younger generation of British composers, his sacred choral works drawing much critical acclaim. The disc contains one of his most extensive scores, Luminosity, intended as a fusion of music and dance, and drawing on Eastern and Western influences. In many ways he is here following in the footsteps of John Tavener, the slow-moving hypnotic mode heightened by the use of the tanpura, an Indian drone instrument, and the sonorous quality of a solo viola. Organ and percussion add to the feel that we are in a religious Eastern temple, the music harmonically straightforward and obviously deeply satisfying to perform. Of course we are minus the dancers and the lighting effects used to create the transcendental beauty of eternal love, but standing alone I find it a satisfying score. The remainder of the disc is given to nine sacred pieces opening with the thrilling Magnificat and the following Nunc Dimittis. Maybe A Prayer of Desmond Tutu does cross the line into a modern commercial world, but it is a tune that once heard you will remember. Listening to the disc over a matter of days I found it best to dip into this group of works as they are in a similar mood. The vocal group, Commotio, were formed in Oxford in 1999 and possess that tonal quality that is fast becoming a national style. Sopranos go on high with much security, with the feel of boy choristers ever present, while the men bring a rich sonority to the music’s middle regions. Aided by a resonant church acoustic, and with contributions from the tenor, Christopher Gillett; Desmond Tutu as reader; and a generous organ accompaniment from Henry Parkes, one would believe that Whitburn is well served.