I suppose the music of Matthew Coleridge (1980) is unfamiliar even to those who follow contemporary choral music closely. Until now, this English composer has mainly dealt with arranging, but he has been composing practically since childhood. He belongs to the authors who have live experience of working in a choir – either as a singer, conductor, or choir workshop leader. His latest album is also worth paying attention to in our context, as it brings interesting impulses for contemporary sacred music.

The title piece, Requiem, for solos, choir, cello, strings, organ and percussion, is Coleridge’s first major composition, which was created back in 2014-2015. The original instrumentation included only choir, cello and organ and was recorded as such (2020). However, the author decided to rework the piece and record it again with a chamber orchestra. For the recording, he approached the excellent British ensembles Southern Sinfonia and The Choir of Royal Holloway.

In terms of form, the piece has unusually only 7 parts (Introit, Kyrie, Offertory, Pie Jesu, Rex tremendae, Agnus Dei and Lacrimosa), but it still lasts 30 minutes. You can feel that the composer lets every idea die out until the very end, nothing is finished prematurely. He lets the music flow, thanks to which he can dive into the depths – just as the Latin text of the Mass for the dead descends to the depths of the human soul. The result is Requiem with extraordinary effect.

The tendency towards a gradual and unhurried development of motifs is also characteristic of other songs on the album, e.g. for the choral Stabat Mater Dolorosa. The composer also continues the rich tradition of Anglican hymns, especially in compositions with organ accompaniment (Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis). Among the strings, the cello (played by the excellent Maximo Calver) has an important role throughout the album, which in several places leads an interesting dialogue with the choir (part of the Offertory as part of the Requiem), or with soprano Karin Dahlberg (And I Saw and New Heaven). Calver’s famous interpretation stands out most in the instrumental composition And There Was Light for cello and strings.

Matthew Coleridge’s compositions (especially the Requiem) are non-primordial, unpredictable, despite the fact that they remain in the tonal space and their creator does not engage in experiments. Thanks to the work with dynamics, construction and gradation of sentences and thanks to several unexpected chordal connections, it achieves a moment of surprise and, from the listener’s point of view, a kind of satisfaction. It is music that is imaginative, innovative, but at the same time intimate in sound and atmosphere. I don’t know anything that comes close to the honest and subtle aesthetic that I encountered with this particular album. In some ways, Coleridge’s music resembles the sea waves from the album’s title photo. Sometimes it hugs you calmly and cradles you, other times it carries you deafeningly into the unknown. It is the prototype of sacred music of the 21st century, which appeals to the human soul in its complexity.