In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Sven-David Sandström.
Sven-David Sandström
1942-2019
Distinguished Swedish composer Sven-David Sandström is best known for his Requiem, The High Mass, the 2001 opera, Jeppe: The Cruel Comedy, and his concertos. Born in Motala, he studied art history and musicology at Stockholm University, as well as composition at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm, where he later became a member of the faculty. An experienced teacher, Sandström also taught at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana, for ten years. Having developed a particular taste for baroque choral music, he went on to write many pieces in the idiom of Handel and Bach, incorporating his own unique style. Examples include a set of six Bach cantata texts in the double-choir and four-part chorale structure of the baroque composer, in addition to a reinterpretation of the text of Handel’s Messiah. Sandström also composed for film and television, scoring Äntligen! (1984), Facklorna (1991), and Gertrud (1999). Sandström’s music combines a range of influences such as modernism, minimalism, and jazz, and can be heard on a number of recordings.
Suggested Choral Pieces:
- Hear My Prayer, O Lord (Gehrmans Musikforlag N10534)
- Julvisa (Gehrmans Musikforlag GE 11553)
- Five Pictures from the Bible (Gehrmans Musikforlag GE 10853)