Getting Your Hands on Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium
The piece is for mixed choir a cappella, SATB. Written in 1994, it's become one of the most programmed works in the contemporary choral canon. The text comes from the Vulgate, Luke 1:26-35, and focuses on the mystery of the Incarnation. Lauridsen sets it in a modal idiom with lush harmonies that shift between A minor and D major, using whole-tone passages and chromatic mediants to create color. Official sheet music is published by Shirley Thompson Publications. You can order piano reductions, choir parts, or full scores directly from their website or through major sheet music retailers like jwpepper.com or sheetmusicplus.com. There are also arrangements available for smaller ensembles and solo voice with piano if your situation doesn't call for a full SATB choir. The cost runs roughly $4 to $8 per vocal part and around $18 to $24 for a full score. I ran into a specific issue once when my choir was preparing this piece and the vocal parts had a misprint in measure 47. The alto line had a G natural where it should have been a G sharp, which threw off the harmony entirely because Lauridsen stacks a major seventh against the root in that chord. I caught it by cross-referencing the piano reduction against the printed parts, which is something you should always do before the first rehearsal. The error appears in at least one printing and was corrected in later pressings, but it's still common enough to find in used copies.
The real challenge with this piece isn't the range or the difficulty of the notes. It's the balance. Lauridsen writes in thin textures sometimes—just two or three voices moving together—and then suddenly layers six or seven independent lines. If your choir doesn't adjust dynamics carefully, the dense sections sound muddy and the sparse sections sound empty. The tempo is also deceptive. It's marked adagio but you need to keep it moving, or the harmonic tension collapses. I usually set it around quarter note = 54 to 58, depending on the acoustic. Anything slower and the phrase directions start to fall apart. One counter-intuitive thing about this piece: the chord progressions sound simple on the surface but they require extremely precise intonation because Lauridsen frequently uses added-note chords and quartal harmonies that don't resolve the way functional harmony would expect. Singers tend to "correct" the pitches toward equal temperament, which ruins the effect. You need to tune the thirds and sevenths by ear, letting the overtones align rather than playing everything through an app. This becomes especially important in the opening section where the choir sustains clusters for multiple measures. Another practical note: the soprano line sits comfortably in its middle register for most of the piece, which is unusual for Lauridsen. He does send it up to a high E-flat briefly but it's brief and on sustained vowels. The real fatigue driver is the bass section, which has long phrases without breath marks in several spots. If your basses are running out of air, rehearse the phrasing separately before bringing the whole choir together.
If you can't get the official edition, avoid unauthorized reproductions from websites offering free PDFs. The engraving quality matters here because the voice leading is intricate and poorly scanned parts make it nearly impossible to read individual lines during performance. I've seen choirs waste hours trying to sort out parts from low-resolution scans where the beaming and staff lines overlap beyond recognition. The piece typically runs between four and five minutes depending on your tempo choices and the acoustics of your venue. It's short enough to program as a standalone work or as a center piece of a larger concert. Most choirs find it rewarding to work on because it teaches them to listen across voice groups rather than just staying in their own lane, which is a skill that pays off on harder repertoire later in the season.
Get the Full Details
Where to Find It
Shirley Thompson Publications holds the exclusive rights. Their site is shirleythompsonpublications.com. They list the price breakdown clearly and offer digital delivery for most formats. If you're a university or professional choir, some libraries carry standing orders for choral repertoire so check whether yours already has a subscription before purchasing individual copies.
