"... a unique resource...Music libraries as well as libraries that support advanced music programs should have this title."— March 2008, ARBA

Memento Mori: A Guide to Contemporary Memorial Music presents a useful reference listing of modern settings of the requiem and other forms of memorial music. It is a follow up to the author's previous work, Dies Irae: A Guide to Requiem Music. Robert Chase brings a relatively unexplored territory of musical repertoire to public attention, offering descriptions of previously unfamiliar or little known contemporary choral works devoted to the memorial theme. Through discussions of 71 composers with compositions from six continents, the book offers a general historical record of 20th and 21st century memorial composition and shows a variety of musical styles representing different religious and secular traditions.

Presented alphabetically by composer, each entry contains a brief biography emphasizing the composer's choral output and an in-depth description of the work, including its origin, edition(s) of the music, length of the composition, structure and orchestration of the piece, and any known recordings. Memento Mori also prints numerous poetic texts, such as Armenian, Latvian, and German poetry, translated here for the first time into English. An extensive bibliography, a list of over 400 additional contemporary composers and their works, and appendixes of English translations of Latin texts of the Roman Catholic requiem mass conclude this valuable reference.

Robert Chase, formerly professor of music at Pace University in New York, is a pianist, organist, and choral conductor. He is the author of Dies Irae: A Guide to Requiem Music (Scarecrow Press, 2003).

Table of Contents: Acknowledgments • Copyright Permissions • Introduction • 1. James Adler • 2. Roberto Allegro • 3. Antonio Anichini • 4. Gus Anton • 5. Malcom Archer • 6. Khachatoor Avedissian • 7. Osvaldas Balakauskas • 8. Vidmantis Bartulis • 9. Viktors Baštiks • 10. Hampartzoum Berberian • 11. Jean Marie Bernard • 12. Boris Blacher • 13. Alfred Bruneau • 14. Javier Busto • 15. Nan-Chang Chien • 16. Nancy Hill Cobb • 17. Eleanor Daley • 18. Richard Danielpour • 19. Agostino Donini • 20. Dev Dosaj • 21. Hans Eklund • 22. Marc Eychenne • 23. Guido Guerrini • 24. Gabriella Gullin • 25. John Harbison • 26. Mark Hardy • 27. William Harper • 28. Max Helfman • 29. Robert Hugill • 30. Andrew Imbrie • 31. Désire-Émile Inghelbrecht • 32. Max Janowski • 33. Wilfrid Josephs • 34. Volker David Kirchner • 35. Ståle Kleiberg • 36. Cyrillus Kreek • 37. Christopher Lacy • 38. Morten Johannes Lauridsen • 39. John Leavitt • 40. Nils Lindberg • 41. Oskar Lindberg • 42. George Lloyd • 43. Zdenek Lukaš • 44. Pawel Lukaszewski • 45. Roman Maciejewski • 46. Arturs Maskats • 47. Colin Mawby • 48. Emilis Melngailis • 49. Jón Nordal • 50. Lloyd Pfautsch • 51. Craig Phillips • 52. Teresa Procaccini • 53. Licinio Refice • 54. Rolf Schweizer • 55. Jean-Pierre Sciau • 56. Peter Sculthorpe • 57. Remigijus Sileika • 58. Richard W. Smith • 59. James Stevens • 60. Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul • 61. John Tavener • 62. Helen Tobias-Duesberg • 63. Raymond Torres-Santos • 64. Toby Twining • 65. Mindaugas Urbaitas • 66. Gareth Valentine • 67. Patricia Van Ness • 68. Amaral Vieira • 69. Robert Wittinger • Appendix: The Gregorian Requiem Mass • Composers of Contemporary Memorial Music • Bibliography • Index • About the Author