Gordon Getty: Beauty Come Dancing – James Gaffigan

   in Choir & Organ (Jan, 2019)
Most of these pieces are set to the composer’s own poetry. Gordon Getty’s music is fluent and lyrical, reminiscent of the first half of the 20th century; but when he gets a good idea, the choral lines are repeated continually and often have the quality of a recitative. Where the interest comes is in Getty’s flair for orchestration which colours his writing; chorally the thematic material is sparse. He has a sense of humour, as the setting of Keats’s There was a naughty boy shows, and his orchestration of Shenandoah gives a new twist to a traditional tune. His most successful piece is the title track Beauty Come Dancing. The Netherlands …