The Magic Paint Brush

The wellknown Danish conductor and composer John Høybye has a huge repertory of choral music of his own. He has now collected some of his larger works for a recording with the much praised choir Voces Nordicae under Lone Larsen.

The music on the CD is a mixture of sacred songs and secular; among the latter is the piece that was commissioned by the 8th World Symposium on Choral Music in Copenhagen 2008, The Magic Paint Brush. The sacred songs are characterized by a neoclassical style, while the secular ones are inspired by the rhythms and harmonies of jazz. The two Danish songs that finish the CD are in an extension of Nordic folk tradition.

John Høybye (b. 1939) is one of Denmark’s most eminent choral conductors. For several decades he conducted his choir Tritonus, which was most of all noticed for its songs in pop and jazz style, often in arrangements by Høybye himself. But his work both as a choral conductor and a composer has reached far beyond the popular music for which he is most wellknown. This CD bears witness to that.

The Magic Paint Brush is the fourth CD by Voces Nordicae on Footprint Records. The latest CD is What is Life? (FRCD 045). Voces Nordicae is probably the Swedish choir most in demand right now around the world. In the summer  of 2011 they were invited as the only European choir to the 9th World Symposium on Choral Music in Argentina.