Music for Lent and Easter
Five pieces for Lent and Easter: A Renewal of Faith, Dona nobis pacem, and
Crucifixus for SATB; Lux Aeterna and Che si può fare for Upper Voices.
A Renewal of Faith (2021)
for SATB & organ
A new work for SATB (no divisi), this was written at the suggestion of my publisher, to provide a straight-forward, direct piece that captures something of a spirit of renewal as choirs come back together and sing. Intentionally restrained, the piece provides a satisfying harmonic journey, is contemporary without being impenetrable, and a performance is achievable on a modest amount of rehearsal.
Text:
We pray for a renewal of our faith and that,
in all the tensions and confusion of this present time,
we may continue to trust in your name,
and find your love in strength and peace.
We pray that your Church may grow in faith,
so that sharing Christ’s suffering and death,
we may share in the glory of his resurrection.
Words: Gillian Rogers
2 minutes 30 seconds
Review:
Olivia Sparkhall offers us the anthem A Renewal of Faith (mixed voices & organ; Encore, £2.50). The text opens with ‘We pray’, and this is used as a kind of mantra throughout the piece. The melodic material, whose accompaniment is often little more than simple chords, appears in short cells. There is a satisfying final climax, and the effect of the whole is one of uncomplicated charm.
Jeremy Jackman in Choir & Organ magazine, July/August 2021
Dona nobis pacem (2018)
for SATB
As heard on BBC Radio 3 broadcast of Choral Evensong, 10/14 November 2021.
Dona nobis pacem was composed in 2018 to mark 100 years of female suffrage and the centenary of the armistice of WWI. It was written in response to a ‘call for scores’ from a Scottish choir who were looking for a piece to be performed alongside Robert Carver’s Missa ‘L’homme armé’. The medieval European ‘pop’ song L’homme armé (The Armed Man) formed the basis of many Masses written by European Renaissance composers, but Carver was the only British composer to use the tune in his Mass-setting. I took the ‘dona nobis pacem’ from Carver’s Missa ‘L’homme armé’ as a literal starting point. Thus the piece is enveloped in the sound-world of Carver, whilst embracing more contemporary choral sonorities, to give a sense of it being as much about the ‘here and now’; as a homage to the past. Dona nobis pacem is suffused with direct quotations from the medieval song L’homme armé. A particular characteristic of Carver’s style is his simultaneous, or almost simultaneous use of both B-natural and B-flat. I have taken advantage of this enjoyment of that particular false relation to add extra colour to this setting.
This piece was short-listed in the Cappella Nova Composers' Competition, and is published by Multitude of Voyces.
Crucifixus (2019)
for SATB soli & SATB chorus
As part of the liturgy of Palm Sunday, in the Church of England, the congregation join in with the reading of the Passion, taking the part of ‘the crowd.’ It was the congregation’s shouts of ‘crucify him’ from this service that acted as a catalyst for this setting of Crucifixus.
Text:
Crucifixus etiam pro nobis; He was crucified also for us;
sub Pontio Pilato passus, under Pontius Pilate he suffered,
et sepultus est. and was buried.
Review:
"This striking setting stands in a long line of such settings over the centuries, but holds its own and has a special approach to the words. There is a repeated ‘Crucifixus’, with distinctive rhythmic and harmonic pattern – the composer refers to the congregational shouts of ‘crucify him’ in liturgical readings of the Passion as a catalyst. At first the choir has the ‘Crucifixus’ pattern while solo voices continue with the text; then roles are reversed as choir tenors and basses describe suffering and burial. The music moves through tonalities and textures until a final long crescendo and powerful conclusion on the repeated, single-word ‘Crucifixus’."
James L. Montgomery, Church Music Quarterly, March 2022
Lux Aeterna (2018)
for SSSSAA & harp (or piano)
Lux Aeterna for SSAA Girls' Choir, SA Women's Chorus & harp
Lux Aeterna was commissioned by Louise Stewart for the 2018 Salisbury International Women’s Day service. The première was given by Godolphin Vocal Ensemble and a community choir featuring the women of Salisbury’s churches. Conceived to be a companion piece to Carol J. Jones’s All Shall Be Well, Lux Aeterna reflects on the near-death visions of Julian of Norwich by juxtaposing the ethereal qualities of some contemporary sacred music with the music we know would have been familiar to Julian and her contemporaries. Using the original plainchant lux aeterna melody (from the Requiem Mass) as an intonation, reminiscent of the opening of All Shall Be Well, along with the notes of the Lydian mode (the mode in which the Lux Aeterna is set), I have attempted to reimagine the sounds associated with Julian’s fourteenth century voice in the twenty-first century.
Che si può fare? (2019)
for SSA & piano (or organ)
Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677) was a prolific publisher of her songs. This one comes from her Opus 8 collection, published in 1664. In the 17th century, it was unusual for a composer to publish so much; that Strozzi did so resulted in considerable public recognition for her. It has also ensured her legacy, latterly, as some of the original publications are freely available. Che si può fare? exists as a notated melody (albeit in a less recognisable notation) along with the written-out passacaglia bass line. Nothing else exists and has had to be constructed afresh.
Che si può fare?
Le stelle ribelle non hanno pietà;
s'el cielo non dà un influsso di pace al mio penare,
Che si può fare?
Che si può dire?
3 minutes 30 seconds
How can I prosper?
The stars have no mercy against me they rise, against me the stars rebel.
If heaven does not give me peace to my suffering,
How can I prosper?
What can be spoken?