Christopher Tyler Nickel - Requiem (Clyde Mitchell)

Information

Composer: Christopher Tyler Nickel

• Requiem

Catherine Redding, soprano

Northwest Sinfonia & Choir

Clyde Mitchell, conductor

Date: 2024

Label: AVIE Records

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Review

Vancouverite Christopher Tyler Nickel has composed over 100 scores for theatre, film and TV, as well as symphonies, concertos, chamber works and a seven-hour-long (!) oratorio, a complete setting of The Gospel According to Mark. His Requiem (2019), lasting “only” 70 minutes, here receives an emotionally stirring performance from Canadian soprano Catherine Redding and the Northwest Sinfonia and Choir conducted by Claude Mitchell.

It’s scored for a dark-sounding chamber orchestra of oboe, English horn, two French horns and strings; “I wanted to keep a solemnity to the Requiem,” writes Nickel. The choral writing largely avoids rhythmic counterpoint, embracing instead “homorhythm” – all voices in rhythmic unison, creating a sense of granite-like solidity. The music varies in character, each of the 19 sections, says Nickel, having its own “overarching emotion.” He’s drawn from stylistic sources ranging from the austerity of Gregorian chant, in the opening Introitus and Kyrie, to the urgent expressivity of late-Romanticism.

The gently supplicating lyricism of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem predominates in nine of the sections, while the syncopated, motoric dynamism of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana energizes the Dies Irae, Confutatis and Responsorium. Brucknerian grandeur magnifies the Tuba Mirum; the Offertorium sounds like a sentimental folk-ballad.

Nevertheless, there’s an overall unity to this beauty-filled music, thanks to Nickel’s distinctive melodic gift. As a chorister, I’ve sung in Requiems by Mozart, Cherubini, Brahms, Fauré and Duruflé; I’d love to be able to add Nickel’s to this list.

— Michael Schulman

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Christopher Tyler Nickel (born 1978) is a Canadian composer. A graduate of the University of British Columbia School of Music, he pursued further studies in New York and Los Angeles. Nickel has written numerous concert works premiered by major ensembles across Canada, the United States and Europe. He is also an accomplished screen composer, having written music for hundreds of hours of film and television for clients such as Discovery Channel and History Channel. His work has received multiple awards and nominations, including honors from the Park City Film Music Festival and the Leo Awards.

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Clyde Mitchell is the Founding Music Director of Lions Gate Sinfonia and creator of the Lions Gate Youth Orchestra. Following studies at Louisiana State University and California State University, Northridge, he enjoyed a distinguished career as a hornist with major orchestras in Colombia, the U.S. and Canada. He later earned advanced conducting credentials from CSU–Long Beach and the University of Southern California, leading to a nine-year tenure with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Mitchell also maintains an active international guest-conducting career and is a dedicated music educator.

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