The Prayer Cycle is a choral/orchestral album by American film and television composer Jonathan Elias, and was released by Sony Classical Records in the United States on March 23, 1999.
The project, recorded and mixed by co-producer R. Walt Vincent, consists of a nine-part contemporary choral symphony in twelve languages (Hungarian, Hebrew, Latin, Swahili, Tibetan, Urdu, Mali, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and English).
Featured vocalists include Alanis Morissette, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Salif Keita, Linda Ronstadt, Ofra Haza, James Taylor, Richard Bona, Mah Damba, Yungchen Lhamo, and Perry Farrell, who were backed by Devin Provenzano, The American Boychoir and The English Chamber Orchestra & Chorus, conducted by Lawrence Schwartz.
Music from The Prayer Cycle was featured on the 1999 ABC documentary series called "The Century", which aired in six parts March 29 and April 1, 3, 5, 8 and 10.
The Prayer Cycle was played in its entirety for two Music from the Hearts of Space programs, "The Prayer Cycle" (program 536, originally aired September 10, 1999) and again as "Terror and Hope" (program 605, originally aired September 21, 2001) in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. It has only ever been performed live once, by the Branford High School choir at Woolsey Hall in New Haven, Connecticut. The piece was conducted by choir director Cathyann Roding and performed by the choir (including featured soloists) and a 45-piece orchestra.
Read more about The Prayer Cycle: Track Listing
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“Westminster Abbey is nature crystallized into a conventional form by man, with his sorrows, his joys, his failures, and his seeking for the Great Spirit. It is a frozen requiem, with a nation’s prayer ever in dumb music ascending.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
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—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)