Stabat Mater (2021)

The music of Tyler Futrell is often dramatic and expansive. The sound is raw, with the Terjung Ensemble providing a heavy and rich foundation to the movements. Futrell is partly inspired by the highly experimental spectral school, but his music also reminds me of composers like John Tavener, Henryk Górecki, Arvo Pärt, and other "holy minimalists."

[...]

Futrell's Stabat Mater is a powerful piece of church music that captures the universal and—unfortunately—ever-relevant nature of this ancient story.

The music’s beauty is arresting, all the more so for the scuttling, juddering, convulsive sonic violence from which it often emerges: a radiant Raphael Madonna who has strayed into an El Greco Crucifixion. We open and close in a place beyond pitch. Wooden tremors pass through the ensemble (an anticipation of the earthquake to come?), bow-backs bounce on strings, surfaces are struck and heavy pizzicatos ricochet; later, pitches bend and buckle.

[...] This already feels like a modern classic.