Description
This wonderful article by Dr. Mariana Farah is a companion resource to S-40 Salmo 150 by Ernani Aguiar. Here is the first page of this well-written essay:
Ernani Aguiar’s Famous Salmo 150:
An Insight into the Composer’s Musical Language
Brazilian composer Ernani Aguiar (b.1950) is held in high regard as one of the most important and influential names on the current Brazilian musical scene. Although he is best known as a composer, Aguiar’s contributions to music extend well beyond his own works, as he remains active as a conductor, professor, and scholar. He is a noted authority on eighteenth-century Brazilian music and has discovered and edited much of this repertory. Aguiar has garnered impressive success in Brazil and abroad with performances, recordings, and broadcasts of his works. Significant examples of his wide- ranging production are pieces for a cappella choir, especially Salmo 150 (1975), which has been performed by hundreds of choirs across Brazil and the United States. In fact, the composer’s catalogue describes this work as likely being the most frequently performed Brazilian choral composition in the U.S.1 Although such a statement is difficult to verify, earthsongs Publishing confirms that since they released Salmo 150 in 1993, the work has been, and continues to be, among their ten best-selling compositions.2
