Jonathan Elias – ‘The Prayer Cycle’

Jonathan Elias – The Prayer Cycle

The Prayer Cycle is an album of classical/choral/world music by Jonathan Elias, better known for his film and television compositions and advertising tunes.

What makes this choral symphony stand out is its mixture of traditional choral pieces with voices from the pop/rock world and from non-western musical traditions. But what makes it stand out, even more, is that these different musical traditions and styles seem to blend without compromising their own purity.

The beautiful and haunting songs are sung in twelve different languages, by singers from the United States, Canada, Pakistan (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan), Israel (Ofra Haza), Mali (Salif Kaita and Mah Damba) and Tibet (Yungchen Lhamo). Pop/Rock is represented by stalwarts Alanis Morissette, Perry Farrell (of Jane’s Addiction fame), James Taylor, and  Linda Ronstadt. The superb choral and orchestral music is performed by the American Boys Choir, English Chamber Orchestra and Chorus and by soloist Devin Provenzano. Other musicians included Cameroonian Jazz musician, Richard Bona and Classical guitarist John Williams. 

This impressive cast has produced, what I consider to be, a musical classic. It is both inspiring and haunting in its spiritual reverence. Its diversity of styles, some of which most western listeners would find unfamiliar, makes it exciting and serves to stop the listener from drifting off to the familiar.

Perhaps because of the presence of pop/rock singers, some categorise this album as pop/rock. However, there is little else to justify this. The album was released by a classical music label and the music is not sung or played in pop/rock style. It is melodious choral music, featuring soloists from a number of musical and ethnic traditions, whose solos underline or provide a different expression of the sentiment or emotion of each of the nine movements of the choral symphony.

I trust that this album will continue to appeal to a wide variety of musical tastes.