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First Person: Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang on the original Jewish love story

October 12, 2023

I wouldn’t say that I am super religious, but I am definitely religion-curious. It is a big part of my family background, and, to be honest, a big part of the history of my chosen field, Western classical music. For the past 1000 years, the church has been the most powerful commissioner of Western music, and its most active employer of musicians.

Because of this, much of our foundational repertoire is explicitly on the subject of how music helps a listener get in the mood for a religious experience…

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David Lang Profile in New York Times

DAVID LANG first heard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” at the San Francisco Opera in 1974, as an undergraduate student and aspiring composer. This was the first opera ticket — standing room — that he had paid for with his own money, and he arrived well prepared, with a copy of the score and a flashlight to study it by.

“It was a really big deal for me,” Mr. Lang, now 55, said recently, sitting on a sofa in his light-flooded SoHo loft while two parakeets called noisily for attention from another room…

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David Lang & Bill Morrison present  The Village Detective: a song cycle

Recorded by Frode Andersen (accordion)
featuring Shara Nova (guest vocals on “I cross the field”)

The film premieres April 27 at the Moscow International Film Festival.

Soundtrack now streaming on all digital services

Conceived as a suite for a single accordion, David Lang’s soundtrack for the forthcoming Bill Morrison film (slated for theatrical release later this year via Kino Lorber) evokes a remarkable turn into folk traditions inspired by Russian storytelling…

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David Lang, ‘again (after ecclesiastes)’ featured on NPR

David Lang, ‘again (after ecclesiastes)’

June 14, 2022 10:35 AM ET
Tom Huizenga

David Lang‘s again (after ecclesiastes) opens with sections of the Cappella Amsterdam choir, from high to low, interlacing on the phrase “People come and people go / The earth goes on and on.” The words are from Ecclesiastes, a curious book of The Old Testament that reads more like a philosophical argument than a rousing validation of belief…

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