Name that piece! The game

[Sergeant Rock]

Here is my riddle...

I'm gonna let my brain work on it while I sleep. Good night, all.

Sarge

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Good night, Sarge!

[Cato]

Here is my riddle...


http://www.4shared.com/audio/mNBnr-xB/Mystery_music.html

I have never heard the work, but given that you are a Brian afficionado, and that I think I hear a Germanic language of some sort, is it part of his Fourth Symphony? 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I have never heard the work, but given that you are a Brian afficionado, and that I think I hear a Germanic language of some sort, is it part of his Fourth Symphony?

Your logic is impeccable, but - no, it isn't Brian (would be too obvious, too!) His Fourth Symphony is a much darker and grimmer affair...

[Lethevich]

I am so deaf with choral music The two works I have heard recently which may somewhat inhabit this sound world are:

Vaughan Williams - Dona nobis pacem (this sounds more festive)
Delius - Songs of Farewell (it sounds more gentle than these I think)

Is that a harp at the start or are my ears rebelling against this challenge?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

It is an extremely luscious and sensual score. So harps do figure. It's neither Delius nor RVW, btw.  But it is strikingly similar to ol' Frederick and that's why I like it a lot. The composer was a younger contemporary...

[Lethevich]

Following the not entirely unreasonable assumption that the composer is from Britain, two composers of that period seem to potentially fit the bill for writing rather exotic music.

I discount Bantock because the only recording of his Omar Kháyyám and the Hyperion series sound more modern than the sample recording, and I don't know his other choral music (or even whether it's worth knowing).

Then Holst pops his head forward - perhaps "Cloud Messenger"?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Nope... I suggest you listen to the language... And the sound of the sample isn't representative. The CD will sound much much better (don't have it yet. I heard this work on the radio, and that's where this sample comes from).

[klingsor]

I have trouble making out the language. Maybe you can clue me in?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Cato said Germanic. He was right. Drop the ic and you know the language...

[klingsor]

It's not The Book of the Seven Seals by Franz Schmidt is it?

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

No. But the nationality of the composer is identical.

[Cato]

I have not heard all of Zemlinsky's choral works or operas, but the work has an aroma that could have emanated from his nib.

[Lethevich]

Zemlinsky was the one I was looking towards after the language correction, but I don't recall a section like that in his Lyric Symphony (the soloist was quite present throughout), and I gave one of the psalms a listen and it was in a different manner. My total deafness when it comes to deciphering sung texts definitely doesn't help

[Opus106]

I was thinking Pfitzner specifically, Palestrina, but since I have not heard that work, and don't  know if it even has the kind of choral writing represented in the snippet, I am reluctant to make a formal guess.

Don't. Pfitzner was German.

I'm going to throw out a name: Egon Wellesz.

And due to little Wiki'ing, I'm now listening to his Prosperos Beschwörungen on YouTube.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

No Zemlinsky, no Pfitzner, no Wellesz. But the composer was an unashamed late Romantic until his dying day. This work is from 1911.

[Sergeant Rock]

I was thinking Pfitzner specifically, Palestrina, but since I have not heard that work, and don't  know if it even has the kind of choral writing represented in the snippet, I am reluctant to make a formal guess.

Palestrina does employ a boy's choir. But as 106 pointed out, he was German.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

No Zemlinsky, no Pfitzner, no Wellesz. But the composer was an unashamed late Romantic until his dying day...

And what day was that? 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

And what day was that? 

Around the time of the Beatles' second tour of America.

[karlhenning]

He loved those mop-tops!