Recommended Listening by Composer J.A.C. Redford

Greetings to all of you who participated in the CSLF webinar on Music in Narnia!

Thank you for your time and your questions. For those of you who are interested, here’s a link to the Ordinary Saints project that Amber mentioned:

https://ordinary-saints.com

If you’d like to explore my music, following are links to my YouTube Channel and to three recordings featuring my sacred music:

JAC Redford Music:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHs5LLxK9Fm-IMzLXgk9WYQ

Let Beauty Be Our Memorial

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQFRCGGxD-2mxHXh21IRZqx8aYdi4R6MV

Eternity Shut in a Span — Music for Christmas

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQFRCGGxD-2kC-jMl2t0nDT4Po9-SQiAr

Choral and Vocal Music

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQFRCGGxD-2nBWkQzM2EJCjDxtZWw1XZV

Following up on a couple of the questions I received, here are a couple of lists with recommendations for listening.

The first is a list of living composers who have written sacred music in the Christian tradition or from a Christian perspective. This list is by no means exhaustive! Think of it as a place to begin. I have included YouTube links to selected recordings for each, but the catalogues of each of these composers are well worth exploring more broadly. They are listed in alphabetical order. Create your own playlist!

Ēriks Ešenvalds

Long Road

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4vmUpGW1No

Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2s9KujfmXM

O salutaris hostia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blUTC7zzzRI

Trinity Te Deum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaEnf8j-ikI

Samuel Jones

Cello Sonata

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w57qM6L4luw

Elegy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kot4CdiTqQ8

Symphony #3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiGNcHLEgKc

Morten Lauridsen

Lux Aeterna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmCBWGDXLf0

O Magnum Mysterium

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS4_l0osCx8

James Macmillan

Miserere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkJXMjBc5y8

O Radiant Dawn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5drCQq73ZBE

Seven Last Words from the Cross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et8B79uR2Pk

Roxanna Panufnik

Love Endureth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMVH2u7YMCs

Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqougj_Ow7o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGCiI-WA-D8

Arvo Pärt

The Beatitudes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxbArDRcVb4

De Profundis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdoafPTSQpE

Fratres

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4u2lvWhpdw

Spiegel im Spiegel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZe3mXlnfNc

I was also asked about my favorite film scores. Following are a few of them, listed by composer, again in alphabetical order.

  • Richard Rodney Bennett: Enchanted April, Far From the Madding Crowd, Murder on the Orient Express, Nicholas and Alexandra
  • Leonard Bernstein: On the Waterfront
  • Hugo Friedhoffer: The Best Years of Our Lives
  • Jerry Goldsmith: Islands in the Stream, Planet of the Apes, The Wind and the Lion
  • Bernard Herrmann: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, North by Northwest, On Dangerous Ground, Psycho, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Vertigo
  • Maurice Jarre: Jesus of Nazareth
  • Erich Korngold: King’s Row
  • Angela Morley: Watership Down
  • Alfred Newman: Captain from Castile, The Song of Bernadette
  • Miklos Rosza: Ben Hur, Providence
  • Franz Waxman: Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man
  • John Williams: Catch Me If You Can, Jaws, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, War Horse
    Victor Young: The Quiet Man

I have orchestrated for James Horner, Randy Newman and Thomas Newman, whose scores I also greatly enjoy and admire. You can hear the fruits of our work together at the following link on my YouTube channel:

Selected Orchestrations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqo46lt-8Q4&list=PLQFRCGGxD-2mMeVfN6R9VFRarESAyJ90Z

Happy listening! JAC Redford