Composers Datebook

For many years now MidAmerica Productions has been organizing concerts in New York City and enlisting choral ensembles from the U.S. and abroad to come to the "big apple" to perform at prestigious Manhattan venues. On today's date in 1990, choirs from Arkansas, Connecticut, Minnesota, and Texas* were on stage at Carnegie Hall for the world premiere of John Rutter's "Magnificat," specially commissioned by MidAmerica, and with the British composer himself on hand to conduct. "The chorus numbered over 200 voices," Rutter recalled, "every one of them happy and excited at the prospect of joining forces in the magnificent setting of Carnegie Hall… [so] I wanted to write something joyous because that would reflect the mood of the performers…" "The 'Magnifcat'" continues Rutter, "is known as the Canticle of the Blessed Virgin, and it is mainly in the sunny southern countries—Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico—that Mary is most celebrated and enjoyed. This led me to conceive the music as a bright, Latin-flavored fiesta. On feast days of the Virgin Mary in Latin countries, the population sings, dances, dresses in its most colorful clothes, processes in the open air, and celebrates. I wrote my setting in that spirit." Despite composing and conducting religious music, Rutter confessed during a 2003 interview on "60 Minutes" that he was not a particularly religious man himself—just a composer deeply moved and inspired by the spirituality of sacred verses and prayers. *These were the Southern Arkansas University Heritage Singers, the Branford High School Concert Choir from Connecticut, the Moorhead High School A Cappella Choir from Minnesota, and the Sanctuary Choir of the First United Methodist Church of Houston, Texas.