Hermann Suter

Le Laudi

Le Laudi was written in 1926 by the Swiss composer Hermann Suter, and is based on the beautiful "Canticle of the Sun" by Francis of Assisi. It was a triumph on the continent, but unfortunately never made it to Britain.

However, in 2009 it was performed by Histon Choir 2000, and for that occasion there were prepared in 2007 the Midi Rehearsal Files shown below. The public uploading of these Files was observed by Tim Carney, Associate Professor of Music, Chaminade University of Honolulu, who had conducted the first US Performance in Honolulu in 2000, and he came over to the UK to take part in Choir 2000's performance.

In 2009 there did not seem to have been any publicly (freely) available recordings of the Work. However, by 2013/14 several had popped up on Youtube, including a complete one made in 1985 - here - by the Solisten, Philharmonie, Universitätschor & Kinderchor der Musikschule Lublin, Polen, in der Martinskirche in Basel: Musikalische Gesamtleitung: Alex Eckert
and one in 2006 - here (Coreades 2006 a La Rochelle) - which seems to have been an entire performance of which only the first section [Introduzione e No: 1 - Altissimo, onnipotente bon Signore] was uploaded.

Here are the available Midi Files for this Work. They are in two sets. The first set are the normal sort of Files, all with included dynamics. In the second set, however, both the Chorus and the backing parts of the emphasized Files - but NOT the UNemphasized ones - have been stripped of all dynamics, so that the chosen emphasized part can be heard more clearly.

Warning: Sections 1, 3 and 8/9 have a lot of notes, and seem to overwhelm my W10 OS's inbuilt sound synthesising system, with the result that in places some of the sound is reduced or disappears entirely. To counter this I have provided - for the "full dynamics" versions only - these Sections in a "reduced" form, with some of the backing removed. If, on your machine, the sound fades out and in, try the reduced version Files instead.

Set 1, with full dynamics

Le Laudi
UNemphasized	Soprano	Soprano 2	Alto	Alto 2	Tenor	Tenor 2	Bass	Bass 2	Ragazzi
Introduzione e No: 1 - Altissimo, onnipotente bon Signore (Most high, omnipotent good Lord)
Reduced version
2: Laudato sia, mi Signore, per sora luna e le stelle (Sister moon and the stars)									None
3: Laudato sia, mi Signore, per frate vento (Brother wind)									None
Reduced version									None
4: Laudato sia, mio Signor, per sor' acqua (Sister water)	None	None	None	None	None	None	None	None	None
5: Laudato sia, mi Signore, per frato foco (Brother fire)		Same as Sop 1		Same as Alto 1		Same as Tenor 1		Same as Bass 1	None
6: Laudato sia, mi Signore, per sora nostra matre terra (Sister our mother earth)	None	None	None	None	None	None	None	None	None
7: Laudato sia, mi Signore, per quelli che perdonano (Those who pardon)									None
8: Laudato sia, mi Signore, per sora nostre corporale (Sister our corporal death) 9: Laudate e benedite mi Sinore (Praise and bless my Lord)
Reduced version

Set 2, with no dynamics

Le Laudi
UNemphasized	Soprano	Soprano 2	Alto	Alto 2	Tenor	Tenor 2	Bass	Bass 2	Ragazzi
Introduzione e No: 1 - Altissimo, onnipotente bon Signore (Most high, omnipotent good Lord)
2: Laudato sia, mi Signore, per sora luna e le stelle (Sister moon and the stars)									None
3: Laudato sia, mi Signore, per frate vento (Brother wind)									None
4: Laudato sia, mio Signor, per sor' acqua (Sister water)	None	None	None	None	None	None	None	None	None
5: Laudato sia, mi Signore, per frato foco (Brother fire)		Same as Sop 1		Same as Alto 1		Same as Tenor 1		Same as Bass 1	None
6: Laudato sia, mi Signore, per sora nostra matre terra (Sister our mother earth)	None	None	None	None	None	None	None	None	None
7: Laudato sia, mi Signore, per quelli che perdonano (Those who pardon)									None
8: Laudato sia, mi Signore, per sora nostre corporale (Sister our corporal death) 9: Laudate e benedite mi Sinore (Praise and bless my Lord)

That's the end of the Work.

And if something doesn't work properly, please let me know (see the "Comments" section of my Homepage).

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Files originally uploaded in Jul/07.
Some Files were updated in Mar/09.