http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/arts/music/11SACR.html I'm sure Kozinn's claim that Zorn was probably thinking of "a 1950's horror film, one with dungeons and zombies and people being shackled to a sacrificial alter [sic]" would make Z's blood boil, but he seems to have liked it well enough. Really I was impressed with "Hermeticum Sacrum." It was the most enjoyable "classical" Zorn I've heard yet. The wordless chorus sounded great (it was just a 6-person, Hilliard-style vibratoless chorus), and Zorn's overall rhetoric was fairly convincing. The piece is organized into a bunch of variations ("Cantos") that run continuously, so Zorn could experiment with all sorts of styles, from fake Renaissance music to everybody-improv-at-once aleatory. (The latter wasn't actual improv, it was all written out..) The score has some intruiguing symbolism in the percussion foley effects (swishing water, book pages turning) that would sound great if they were really carefully recorded. And there are a few gentle "jump-cuts" where he launches into some surprising film-score reference. Overall, with all of the chimey chords, bowed vibes, tuned wine-glasses, etc., and the "number symbolism," the piece was perhaps a lot like George Crumb. No zombies, though.