Exodus (Kilar)
Choral-orchestral work based on the Biblical Exodus.
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Exodus is a composition for choir and orchestra by the Polish composer Wojciech Kilar, written between 1979 and 1981. The work sets a Latin text drawn from the Biblical Book of Exodus and premiered at the Warsaw Autumn festival on 19 September 1981. It remains one of Kilar's most frequently performed and recorded concert works.
Quick Facts
- Composer
- Wojciech Kilar
- Composition date
- 1979–1981
- Premiere date
- 19 September 1981
- Premiere venue
- Warsaw Autumn festival
- Duration
- about 22 minutes
- Form
- single movement
Facts from the source article.
Reception
Since its first performance, Exodus has split opinion sharply. The composer Krzysztof Penderecki called it a "tiptop... Kosher Boléro," and Kilar himself considered it among his best work.
Christopher Thomas of MusicWeb International praised its "strikingly imaginative" orchestration, describing a brass-led martial climax that shifts into rapid biblical chanting from the choir, building to a triumphant finish. But Gramophone found it "crudely cinematic" and called the closing crowd scene "little short of farcical," comparing its 19-minute orchestral introduction unfavorably to Ravel's Boléro. Andrew Clements of BBC Music Magazine also criticized the piece, noting that "bombast is never far away" and dismissing it as "unremarkable music, unremarkably performed."
Did You Know?
- The piece is based on a single, Jewish-themed melody built upon a descending seven-note phrase that repeats eight times.
- Kilar made deliberate allusions to Maurice Ravel's Boléro in the repetitive structure of Exodus.
More in Works Based on the Book of Exodus
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Exodus (Kilar) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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