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Exuberantly Florid Writing
MIKE WHEELER listens to
António Teixeira's Te Deum
The Te Deum by eighteenth-century Portuguese composer António Teixeira must hold the world record for the longest setting of this text. Its nearest rival, as far as I know, is the finale of Havergal Brian's gargantuan Gothic Symphony, which weighs in at a mere seventy-five minutes. Teixeira's setting, for soloists, five four-part choirs and orchestra, leaves half the verses to be sung to plainsong, and it still takes eighty minutes to perform...
Copyright © 31 March 2011
Mike Wheeler,
Derby UK
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