Toensing and Responsoria

While listening to KVOD the other night I heard some very nice, quiet choral music. Somehow I missed the ending announcer's description. However, I was able to find it from ClassicalFMRadio.org. It was Responsoria by Richard Toensing.

Toensing, it turns out, was Professor of Composition at the University of Colorado here in Boulder and has just recently retired (I think). A local! I even know one of the sponsors of the CD! Since I liked the quiet tolling quality of the piece, I wanted to listen to it again by getting it from the local library. No such luck. Even the local guys don't seem to get acquired for the library CD collection. Amazon had Responsoria so I ordered it from one of their subsidiaries. It showed up promptly and I'm listening to it as I post this. Since I've put it into my mp3 repository, I've decided to donate my copy to the Boulder Public Library.

Responsoria is a setting of the Tenebrae services, the Roman Catholic Church's services of "The Offices of Matins and Lauds". Not being Catholic, nor particularly Christian, the words in Latin have little meaning or effect. But the a capella singing with muted percussion and bells is very soothing and other-worldly. It's 3 CDs, referred to as Books. All much the same, but beautiful none the less.