O Come, Let Us Sing Unto the Lord

These two anthems are examples of Lauridsen's style in embryo, as it were, for both were written while the composer was just twenty-seven years old. Both anthems evince the contrapuntal mastery that would prove an enduring feature of the composer's technique. The pure and austere lines of "I will lift up mine eyes," an a cappella setting of Psalm 121, evoke ancient organum and the imitative devices of Medieval polyphony. Complex chord structures and elaborate canonic procedures give "O come, let us sing unto the Lord" a sense of inexorable forward momentum. The coruscating organ part further enhances the prevailing mood of joy that pervades this anthem.--Byron Adams