In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Vytautas Miskinis

Born: 1954. Living in: Lithuania
As a composer Miskinis is very popular in Lithuania and abroad. He has written over 400 secular and about 150 religious works, and over 100 folk song arrangements for various ensembles. As a result of many years of work with "Azuoliukas" choir, songs for children constitute a large part of his oeuvre. Being open to the tendencies of the day, the composer also pays great attention to the age and the abilities of the singer. His works display close connection between music and text. His religious music is mostly based on Latin texts. Texture of his works is melodic-harmonic, with elements of polyphony, aleatoric and sonoristic effects.

Arrangements | Recordings

Recordings and DVDs

Royal Holloway Choir : Miskinis: Choral Music

Royal Holloway's debut Hyperion recording (of the Latvian composer Rihards Dubra) received a rapturous response from the critics. Now they have produced a second volume of Baltic delights, turning this time to Lithuania and the sumptuous music of Vytautas Miskinis, the doyen of current Lithuanian choral culture.His music, while bearing identifiable Lithuanian roots, is a synthesis of different influences carefully shaped and moulded with an experienced understanding of choral orchestration. Like many other Baltic composers of the same generation, Miskinis takes an essentially diatonic approach but with much overlaying of harmonies and coloured cluster-chords. What makes the music unmistakably Lithuanian is the influence of two folk-song genres. The overall effect is luscious, radiant and exotic. This music is passionately performed by these talented young singers and sensitively recorded in a generous church acoustic.

Songlist: Dum medium silentium, O sacrum convivium, Pater noster, Tenebrae factae sunt, Neiseik, saulala "Don't leave me, sun", O Antiphons (7), Oh, it's getting cold, O magnum mysterium, Ave Maria no 2, Salve regina, Ave Maria no 3, Time is endless