Lang: Poor Hymnal

Like his Pulitzer Prize-winning work “the little match girl passion,” David Lang’s “poor hymnal” also seeks to get to the heart of what constitutes a religious experience. “What I love about hymnals,” the composer writes in the CD booklet, “is that they are a list of things a community of believers can agree on—a list that can be sung. And what believers sing matters.” “poor hymnal” is a concert work written for the chamber choir The Crossing, a multiple Grammy Award winner. The conductor is Donald Nally. Lang assembled the text from lines, phrases, and concise statements drawn from such varied sources as the Old Testament and writings by Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy, to name just a few. Lang explains: “This piece tries to say: The reason we come together is to remind ourselves how important we are to one another and how important it is that we care for one another.” “poor hymnal” was commissioned for The Crossing and Donald Nally by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting, Jill and Loren Bough, Peggy and Mark Curchack, and the Netherlands Chamber Choir.