Bernhard Lewkovitch

Tre Mandskor Motetter

This set of three motets for unaccompanied male choir sets the Latin words for the De Profundis, Ave Maria and Laudate and manifests Lewkovitch's fascination both with chant and with modality. Contemporary Danish composer, conductor and Organist Bernhard Lewkovitch has followed a rare path among modern composers. From 1947 he was Organist at St Ansgars Kirches and later remained connected with the Catholic Church by working as an Organist. Clearly he is inspired by the Catholic liturgy and sees his great output of ecclesiastical music as a vocation and a great responsibility. For many years his work by inspired by Gregorian chant and was composed in church modes, then inthe mid 1950's he began to expand into modern bitonality and polytonality, culminating in Il cantico delle creature in 1962/3 in which there was no conventional notation and no fixed pitch. After that, Lewkovitch had somewhat of a hiatus, later returning again to the inspirations of the mid1950's.