Unger M.P. Historical Dictionary of Choral Music

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Lutheran, Lechner was soon at odds with the Count, who fervently

supported the Counter-Reformation. He was unsuccessful in a 1585

application to the Dresden court, and subsequently fled from the

Duke’s court in Hechingen to Tübingen and then to Stuttgart, where

he joined the chapel choir as a tenor. In 1594, after serving many

years as an assistant, he finally gaining the post of Kapellmeister.

Unfortunately, many of the works from his Stuttgart tenure are lost.

Lechner’s compositions synthesize Franco-Flemish polyphony

with Italianate word-painting. Most of the surviving works origi-

nate in Nuremberg publications. Included are motets for four to six

voices (among them, an eight-part psalm setting—one of the earliest

German examples of Venetian-style polychoral writing), and Mag-

nificats, among others. A 1584 book of three parody masses was

dedicated to Count Eitelfriedrich. Especially noteworthy is a 1594

Passion in motet style, which incorporates the German Passion tone

yet achieves considerable expressiveness.

Lechner also published numerous volumes of secular pieces with

German texts for three to six voices in the style of the villanella and

canzonetta, but with greater technical complexity and expressive

depth. Among them is a volume that includes villanellas by Jacob

Regnart (originally in three voices) arranged for five voices.

LECK, HENRY (24 NOVEMBER 1946– ). American conductor and

educator specializing in children’s choirs. He is active internationally

as a guest conductor and choral clinician. In 1986 he founded the

Indianapolis Children’s Choir, which grew into a renowned program

involving more than 1,000 children in 12 choirs and an early child-

hood division. The premier choir has toured widely at home and

abroad.

LEDGER, [SIR] PHILIP. See KING’S COLLEGE CHOIR.

LEFEBVRE, CHANNING (30 SEPTEMBER 1894–1 APRIL 1967).

American choral conductor, organist, composer, and choral arranger.

From 1922 to 1941 he was organist and choirmaster of Trinity

Church, New York. From 1927 to 1961 he conducted the University

Glee Club of New York City. He taught at St. Paul’s School, a sec-

ondary boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire (at that time

restricted to boys), from 1941 to 1961, when he moved to the Philip-

pines. His choral arrangements are still in use.

252 • LECK, HENRY

LEGRENZI, GIOVANNI (BAPTIZED 12 AUGUST 1626; DIED

27 MAY 1690). Italian composer. He is considered one of the great-

est composers of the Venetian Baroque, having achieved success

with sacred music, opera, and instrumental music (especially trio

sonatas). Although of humble origins, he attained an international

reputation by the end of his life. He served as organist at Santa Maria

Maggiore in Bergamo for some time in the mid-1650s. In 1656 he

was appointed maestro di cappella at the Accademia dello Spirito

Santo in Ferrara. By about 1670, he had moved to Venice, where he

worked at the Conservatory of the Mendicanti, then served as mae-

stro di cappella at San Marco (St. Mark’s Basilica) from 1685, hav-

ing been appointed assistant a few years earlier. During these years,

the roster of musicians at the cathedral reached about 70 (divided

more or less equally between vocalists and instrumentalists)—its

greatest recorded number.

Legrenzi’s surviving vocal ensemble music is virtually all sacred.

It includes concertato pieces for few voices; larger-scale works

for solo voices, chorus, and strings; even larger polychoral works

(e.g., his op. 9 and the Dies irae); and some works in the stile antico

(including a five-part mass of 1689). Extant collections published

during his lifetime include Concerti musicali per uso di chiesa, op.

1 (1654); Harmonia d’affetti devoti libro primo, op. 3, for 2–4 vv.

(1655); Salmi a 5, op. 5 (1657), Sentimenti devoti, libro secondo, op.

6, for 2–3 vv. (1660); Compiete con le lettanie & antifone della BV a

5, op. 7 (1662); Sacri e festivi concenti, messa e psalmi a due chori,

op. 9 (1667); and Sacri musicali concerti, libro terzo, op. 15, for 2–3

vv. (1689). A handful of Latin oratorios are also extant.

LEIFS, JÓN (1 MAY 1899–30 JULY 1968). Icelandic composer and

conductor. He collected folksongs and sought to establish an Icelan-

dic national style. His extended choral works with orchestra include

Thjóðhvöt [Iceland Cantata], op. 13 (1920), and the Edda trilogy of

oratorios, which represent an attempt to reclaim Icelandic mythol-

ogy from Richard Wagner: Edda I: Sköpun heimsins [The Creation

of the World], op. 20, for T, Bar., SATB, and orch. (1935–39); Edda

II: Líf guðanna [The Lives of the Gods], op. 42, for Mez., T, B,

SATB, and orch. (1951–66); Edda III: Ragnarök [The Twilight of

the Gods], op. 65, for Mez., Bar., female chorus, male chorus, SATB,

and orch. (1966–68). His numerous choral works for unaccompanied

LEIFS, JÓN • 253

voices (male as well as mixed) include the Requiem, op. 33b (1947),

written upon the death of a daughter.

LEIGHTON, KENNETH (2 OCTOBER 1929–24 AUGUST 1988).

English composer and educator who studied with Goffredo Petrassi.

His choral style is lyrical and diatonic. Most of his choral works were

commissioned, and are on sacred texts. Examples include A Hymn

of the Nativity (1960); Missa Sancti Thomae, op. 40, for SATB and

org. (1962, commissioned by Canterbury Cathedral and dedicated to

St. Thomas Beckett for the 800th anniversary of his consecration as

Archbishop of Canterbury); Mass (1964); Symphony no. 2 (Sinfonia

mistica), op. 69, for S, chorus, and orch. (1974); Columba mea (can-

tata), op. 78, for A, T, chorus, hp./cel., and str. (1978); and Fanfare

on Newtoun, for SATB, 2 brass qts., and org. (1983, commissioned

by the University of Edinburgh for its 400th anniversary).

LEISRING, VOLCKMAR (1588–1637). German composer and theo-

rist. From 1605 to 1611 he studied theology in Jena, where many of

his surviving motets were published. Two musical treatises were

published in 1611 and 1615 respectively (also in Jena). After 1618

he devoted himself to the pastoral ministry and, according to his own

testimony, gave up composing. His works are conservative in style

and emphasize polychoral textures.

LE JEUNE, CLAUDE (BORN 1528–30; BURIED 26 SEPTEMBER

1600). French composer. He is remembered for his many psalm set-

tings and his musique mesurée. As a Protestant, he worked in Paris

under the protection of Huguenot nobles. He was a leading member

of Baïf’s académie. For a time he worked at the court of François,

Duke of Anjou, brother of Henri III, but he fled Paris in 1589, appar-

ently taking refuge in La Rochelle. He later returned to serve at the

court of Henri IV. His surviving works for vocal ensemble include

some 350 psalms, 65 secular chansons, more than 40 sacred chan-

sons, about as many Italian canzonettas, some 11 motets, 1 securely

attributed mass, and a Magnificat.

LEO, LEONARDO (5 AUGUST 1694–31 OCTOBER 1744). Italian

composer and teacher. Active in Naples, he was a leading composer

of theater and church music. His works demonstrate a more academic

approach than those of Francesco Durante (who was regarded as his

competitor in teaching and church music), emphasizing stricter and

254 • LEIGHTON, KENNETH

more scholarly contrapuntal techniques. Choral works include six

Kyrie-Gloria pairs, two Magnificats, a Te Deum, a famous Miserere

for double choir and org. (1739), and sacred dramas and oratorios

(which incorporated elements of his ecclesiastical style), among

many others.

LEONHARDT, GUSTAV (30 MAY 1928– ). Dutch harpsichordist,

organist, and conductor. He taught at the Vienna Music Academy

(1952–55), the Amsterdam Conservatory (1954–88), and Harvard

University (1969–70). Sensitive to historical performance practice,

he has recorded extensively as a harpsichordist. As a conductor, he

has collaborated with Nikolaus Harnoncourt in a complete recorded

cycle of Johann Sebastian Bach’s sacred cantatas.

LES SIX. A group of French composers, so identified in 1920 by the

critic Henri Collet. It included Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Ar-

thur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Germaine

Tailleferre. The group’s mentor was Erik Satie; Jean Cocteau be-

came its spokesperson, campaigning for the development of a French

nationalist style, free from German influences.

LIDHOLM, INGVAR (24 FEBRUARY 1921– ). Swedish composer

and conductor. He conducted the Örebro Orchestra (1947–56), taught

composition at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (1965–75),

and worked in various capacities for Swedish Radio (before and

after his activities at the Academy). While his early compositions

tended to follow neo-Classical models, he later affirmed avant-garde

approaches. He was highly influential in the development of Swed-

ish choral music during the second half of the 20th century. Choral

works include Laudi (1947); Four Choruses (1953); A cappella-bok

(a pedagogical collection begun in 1956, which includes Canto

LXXXI); Skaldens natt [The Poet’s Night], a symphonic cantata

for S, chorus, and orch. (1958); Nausikaa ensam, for S, chorus, and

orch. (1963); . . . a riveder le stelle, for solo voice and chorus (1973);

The Persians, a “dramatic scena” for T, Bar., nar., and male chorus

(1978); Two Madrigals (1981); De profundis (1983); and Inbillnin-

gens värld, for male chorus (1990).

LIED (GERMAN “SONG”; PL. LIEDER). A song with a German

vernacular text. The polyphonic Lied for voices and/or instruments

retained its association with the term by virtue of a songlike character

LIED • 255

or the use of a preexisting song melody in its construction (some-

times as cantus firmus). It originated in the 14th century, existed in

both sacred and secular forms, and reached its peak in the 15th and

16th centuries, when it embraced both florid counterpoint in perva-

sive imitation, and treble-dominated, homophonic textures. Included

in the latter type were simply harmonized, chordal hymns in the so-

called cantional style. After 1650 the polyphonic Lied was subsumed

by other vocal and vocal-instrumental forms until about 1800, when

it regained an independent identity in the form of the partsong.

LIEDERTAFEL. See SINGING SOCIETIES.

LIGETI, GYÖRGY (28 MAY 1923–12 JUNE 2006). Hungarian

composer of Jewish parentage. After studies at the conservatory in

Kolozsvár (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania) (1941–43) and at the Buda-

pest Academy (1945–49), he taught at the latter, while establishing

himself as a composer of traditional folk-based works as well as more

experimental ones (until the Stalinist regime made the innovation of

the latter impossible). After the Hungarian revolution of 1956, he

fled to Vienna. For a time, he lived in Cologne, where he familiar-

ized himself with avant-garde techniques and serialism. In 1958 he

began teaching courses in Darmstadt and in 1961 he started giving

annual classes at the Academy of Music in Stockholm. From 1959

he made Vienna his home, while traveling regularly to Berlin, where

he had received a scholarship. In 1972 he was a visiting professor at

Stanford University. In 1973 he moved to Hamburg to take up a post

at the conservatory.

Having experienced oppression under Nazi and Stalinist regimes,

Ligeti embraced the freedom of the avant garde while resisting the

dictates of any single system. In particular, he was fascinated by

shifting masses of sound and tone colors. On the one hand, he strove

for slowly changing coloristic effects; on the other, rapid mechani-

cal ones. He referred to these two different styles as “clouds” and

“clocks.” Common in his works are tone clusters and what he called

micropolyphony—dense, homogenous textures constructed of can-

ons at the unison, moving at different speeds. Toward the end of his

career, he turned back to folk idioms and the related medium of the

unaccompanied chorus.

Ligeti’s works for chorus include Requiem, for S, Mez., chorus,

and orch. (1965); Clocks and Clouds, for female vv. and orch. (1973);

256 • LIEDERTAFEL

and some 20 unaccompanied choral works (or sets of works), most

of them written in the 1940s and 1950s. Among the better known

are Éjszaka [Night], Reggel [Morning] (1955), and Lux aeterna, for

16 vv. (1966), which became famous by its use in Stanley Kubrick’s

film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

LISZT, FRANZ (22 OCTOBER 1811–31 JULY 1886). Hungarian

composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher. He was the leading piano

virtuoso of his time, and he strongly supported the new musical

trends of his day; in particular, he championed the music of Richard

Wagner and Hector Berlioz. He composed prolifically in all genres

except opera and chamber music. Resisting traditional forms and

techniques, he developed the process of thematic transformation for

providing structural cohesion.

Although he was born to Hungarian parents and was proud of his

Hungarian heritage, his native language was German; later he learned

French as well. Showing early musical promise, he was taken to Vi-

enna, where he studied piano with Carl Czerny and composition with

Antonio Salieri. To advance the boy’s career, the family traveled in

1823 to Paris, visiting important German centers on the way. As a

foreigner, he was barred from enrolling at the Paris Conservatory, so

his father arranged for private lessons instead.

The Liszts developed a close friendship with family members

of the Erard piano firm, whose instruments were used to showcase

Franz’s sensational talents in concerts managed by his father. Three

successful tours to England (which included performances for

George IV) consolidated his reputation as a concert pianist and com-

poser. When his father died unexpectedly in 1827 of typhoid fever,

Franz became depressed and physically ill, and he retreated into reli-

gious introspection. Although he was shocked out of his lethargy by

the July Revolution of 1830, his religious preoccupation continued,

leading to an association with the Saint-Simonian sect, whose ex-

treme Christian socialism appealed to him. During this time he came

to know Fryderyk Chopin, Hector Berlioz, and the violinist Nicolò

Paganini, whose maniacal virtuosity inspired him to similar achieve-

ments on the piano. A tumultuous love affair with Countess Marie

d’Agoult scandalized some in Paris, and in 1835 the two eloped to

Switzerland. By 1839, despite three children from the liaison, he was

estranged from Marie, and he spent most of the following decade

LISZT, FRANZ • 257

touring Europe and beyond, giving solo recitals (the first performer

to do so), to wildly enthusiastic audiences.

In 1847 he met Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein at Kiev,

who persuaded him to withdraw from the concert stage, and focus

on composition. He consequently settled at the Weimar court with

Carolyne, taking up the position of Kapellmeister-in-Extraordinary,

which had been offered to him already some years before. His dream

was to establish in Weimar a center of progressive music (which

would come be called the “New German School”). However, the

town disapproved of his relationship with the Princess, and some

members of the court also opposed his support for Wagner, who had

fled to Switzerland because of radical political activity. For 13 years

Carolyne fought to have her previous marriage annulled. Her efforts

were finally successful in 1861, after she had traveled to Rome to

petition the Vatican personally. This turn of events, coupled with

continued opposition to Liszt’s musical efforts in Weimar (which

climaxed in a fiasco at the 1858 premiere of Peter Cornelius’s

opera, Der Barbier von Bagdad, which Liszt conducted), led him to

abandon Weimar for Rome, where the couple planned to marry on

his 50th birthday. However, in a last-minute turn of events, the papal

sanction of the princess’s divorce was revoked.

Although Carolyne decided to forgo further litigation, they both

remained in the city, where Liszt became preoccupied with church

music. Fascinated with the Cecilian movement in general and

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s music in particular, he began to

compose sacred choral works. He became a friend of Pope Pius IX,

and in 1865 he took minor orders. In 1867 he completed his largest

work, Christus, a 14-movement oratorio (on a libretto of biblical and

liturgical texts that he selected himself), which relies on chant melo-

dies rather than thematic transformation for cohesion. From 1869

until his death, Liszt divided his time between Rome and Weimar,

while visiting Budapest annually to teach at the conservatory, which

he had helped establish in 1875.

Liszt’s vast output is wide-ranging in style, the contrasts often

linked to his changing life circumstances. A quintessential Roman-

tic, he responded to inspiration rather than tradition or routine, and

always kept in mind the effect of the performance. He often revised

his works for later performances. As adversity took its toll, he turned

increasingly to religion, which had attracted him since his youth. His

258 • LISZT, FRANZ

late works are filled with melancholy, expressed musically through

dissonant chromaticism, harmonic instability, and fragmentation.

Of Liszt’s choral compositions, the ones with secular texts were

written almost entirely during his Weimar years (1848–60), while

the religious ones were written mostly after his subsequent move to

Rome. His first work for choir and orchestra is the secular Festkan-

tate zur Enthüllung des Beethoven-Denkmals in Bonn, for 2 S, 2 T, 2

B, and orch. (1845). More than a dozen other secular works with or-

chestra include An die Künstler, originally for 2 T, 2 B, male vv., and

wind ens. (1853; orch. version, 1854); Zur Säcularfeier Beethovens

(the second “Beethoven cantata”), for S, A, T, B, mixed chorus,

and orch. (1870); and two choral symphonies, the Faust Symphony

(1854, final chorus added in 1857) and the Dante Symphony (1856).

Of some 40 secular works for unaccompanied choir or with ensemble

or keyboard, virtually all are for male voices.

Ten sacred works with orchestra include Sainte Cécile, a legend

for Mez., mixed chorus ad lib., orch./pf. with hmn., and hp. (begun in

1845 for Queen Maria da Gloria of Portugal but not completed until

1874); Missa solennis [“Gran Mass”], for S, A, T, B, mixed chorus,

and orch. (1858, written for the consecration of the basilica in Gran);

Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth, an oratorio for S, A, 3 Bar.,

B, chorus, orch., and org. (1866–72); Christus, an oratorio for S, A,

T, Bar., B, mixed chorus, orch., and org. (1866–72); Cantico del Sol

di San Francesco, for Bar., male vv., orch., and org.; also for Bar.,

male vv. ad lib., pf., org./hmn. (1863, rev. 1879–82); Ungarische

Krönungsmesse [Hungarian Coronation Mass], for S, A, T, B, mixed

chorus, and orch. (1866–69, the first version performed in 1867 for

the coronation of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth as

king and queen of Hungary).

Among the sacred pieces for unaccompanied choir or with en-

semble or keyboard accompaniment are Missa quattuor vocum ad

aequales, for four male vv. and org. (1847); Te Deum (I), for male

vv. and org. (1853); Te Deum (II), for mixed vv., org., with brass and

perc. ad lib. (for the 1859 wedding of Princess Carolyne’s daughter,

Marie); Missa choralis, for mixed chorus and org. (1859–65); Re-

quiem, for 2 T, 2 B, male vv., org., and brass ad lib. (1868, composed

in memory of his mother and his children, Daniel and Blandine); and

Via Crucis (the 14 stations of the cross), for solo vv., chorus, and

org./pf. (1876–79).

LISZT, FRANZ • 259

LITANY. A prayer in the form of call and response, in which a leader’s

brief statements of invocation (to God or saints) or supplication are

followed by a short, repeated congregational response. The form

lends itself to alternatim and polychoral treatment, of which there

are many examples. Tending to be rhythmic in nature, litanies often

accompany processions. Especially popular historically were series

of Marian litanies known as the Litaniae Lauretanae (“Litanies of

Loreto”), associated since the 1550s with the Annunciation shrine

of Loreto.

Litanies for the Roman rite were composed by Franchinus Gaf-

furius, Costanzo Festa, Philippe de Monte, Giovanni Pierluigi

da Palestrina, Orlande de Lassus, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Hans

Leo Hassler, Giovanni Gabrieli, Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio

Cifra, Tarquinio Merula, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Johann

Fux, Antonio Caldara, Jan Dismas Zelenka, Johann Heinichen,

Johann Hasse, Georg Reutter, Georg Wagenseil, Leopold Mo-

zart, Johann Albrechtsberger, Michael Haydn, Antonio Salieri,

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Daniel Auber, Camille Saint-Saëns,

and Francis Poulenc, among others.

Martin Luther’s German Litany (1529) was set by Melchior

Vulpius, Michael Praetorius, Hans Leo Hassler, Heinrich Schütz,

and Johann Hermann Schein. Litanies using other texts include

two by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and Orthodox settings by the

20th-century composers Sergei Rachmaninoff, Dobri Khristov,

and Arvo Pärt. Litanies in the Anglican rite were generally simpler

than their Italian counterparts. Examples include works by Thomas

Tallis, William Byrd, and

Thomas Tomkins.

LLOYD, GEORGE (28 JUNE 1913–3 JULY 1998). English com-

poser and conductor. His career was interrupted by military service in

World War II, during which he sustained severe injuries. By the time

he had regained his health, his neo-Romantic musical style was con-

sidered outdated. He retired to the country, but continued to compose

in his spare time. In 1973 he returned to London and full-time com-

position. Ironically, his music then experienced a renaissance, being

appreciated by many as an alternative to modernism. His choral

works (which belong to this latter period), include The Vigil of Venus,

for S, T, chorus, and orch. (1980); A Symphonic Mass, for chorus and

orch. (1992); A Litany, for S, B, chorus, and orch. (1995); Psalm 130

(1995); and a Requiem, for Ct., chorus, and org. (1998).

260 • LITANY

LOBO, ALONSO (25 FEBRUARY 1555–5 APRIL 1617). Spanish

composer. Having served as a choirboy at Seville Cathedral, he re-

turned many years later to become assistant to the aging Francisco

Guerrero, then maestro de capilla (1591). In 1593 he became mae-

stro de capilla at Toledo Cathedral. In 1604 he again returned to

Seville to assume the duties of maestro. His single publication, Liber

primus missarum, contains six masses for four to six voices, and

seven motets, for four to eight voices. Also extant are three Passions,

Lamentations (for six voices), psalms, and hymns.

LOCKE, MATTHEW (BORN 1621–23; DIED SHORTLY BE-

FORE 10 AUGUST 1677). A leading English composer at the time

of the Restoration, especially significant for his theatrical works. As

a Roman Catholic, he was not a member of the Chapel Royal, but

composed for it. His surviving compositions include consort music,

works for the stage, 14 psalm settings (for three male voices and con-

tinuo), a dozen anthems (including Be Thou Exalted Lord, for three

four-part choirs and soloists—a rare example of a polychoral work

in Restoration England), as many Latin motets (most for two or three

solo voices with strings and continuo), 21 devotional songs (many

for two or three voices and continuo, about half with accompanying

strings), and 22 secular songs. He also wrote three theoretical works,

of which two are polemical.

LOEWE, CARL (30 NOVEMBER 1796–20 APRIL 1869). German

composer and singer. Although he spent almost his entire career in Stet-

tin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland), he traveled widely and was well

respected across Europe as a singer and song composer. When his at-

tempts at opera were unsuccessful, he turned to oratorio, writing more

than one dozen examples in the genre. He also wrote some 18 other

sacred choral works, including a Te Deum for chorus and orchestra, an

Easter cantata, and six German psalm settings, among other motets.

His secular works include more than 60 individual pieces (in about 30

sets of works), about half of them for unaccompanied male chorus.

LOJESKI, ED (16 January 1942– ). American choral arranger, pia-

nist, and conductor. He graduated from the University of Southern

California and the California Institute of the Arts. His wide experi-

ence as a performer and show producer for leading popular artists

and television programs in the United States has led to exceptional

success as a choral arranger of popular vocal music.

LOJESKI, ED • 261