I like it very much!
But I would prefer Latin version.

Isaiah 53:3

despectum et novissimum virorum virum dolorum et scientem infirmitatem

Francis,

Very nicely done. I'm looking at the Latin text version, and I think I may have stumbled on a "scribal error."

Third system, sixth measure, second soprano line, "firmitatem" all F-naturals, but in the accompaniment there is a passing tone (E-natural). Did you intend for the second soprano part to follow that profile, or is the all F-naturals correct?

I'm thinking of filing this one away and using it for my boys' and girls' schola next year.

Hi David:

Good eye! You obviously have a great sense of musical equilibrium!

I will present a sort of musical exegesis to this particular work, 'He Was Despised' (or the latin, Despectum Et Novissimum) to help clarify your observations.

If you look at the English setting of this work, the effect that you mention is even more pronounced since the F-natural occurs on a single syllable [the word 'grief']. It has the effect of 'bending' the melody on that word. It is very important for the vocal part to remain dead solid on pitch as the E-Natural in the accompaniment will have the influence to 'drag' the choir down, but the unmoved minor second of that dissonant interval becomes critical to the climactic resolution of that musical phrase. This is a technique I have been developing all of my composing career which, for better lack of a term, I call an 'extended appoggiatura' or a delayed suspension which painfully begs for resolution. It is one of my signature tools in musical composition that aids in the formulation of 'mysteriously unfolding harmonic progressions' - for some reason it has the desired effect to create introspection and brings on a contemplative and subdued state.

I use this technique more sparingly very early in the same work, so as to foreshadow the point of 'musical vertigo' as it drives toward that final poignant passage of grief in measure 20 (english version). This occurs a couple of times. On the word 'sorrows' (similar to the feeling of grief) in measures 9-10, you have the same passing tone occuring in the vocal part, but as an eighth note (making it much more bearable), but introduces the effect, nonetheless.

Then in measures 17-18 a similar phenomenon occurs; the initial chord tends to leave one feeling 'slapped, stretched and disjointed' as the chord (from the bottom up, G, F, A, C, D, A, E) contains every note in the entire diatonic scale except the 'B-Natural'. And then the top two notes (in the vocal part) execute the 'hollow' and unusual descent of perfect fifths. This flies right in the face of good voice leading, and has the definite effect that something has gone unusually wrong.

It may seem a bit odd at first, but the more you hear this piece (and perform it), these realities are what truly drive the entire work to its final chord. This chord (whether this work or of another composer), liturgically speaking, becomes the musical bookend that delivers us into the silence of the tomb - its compliment emerges in the Exsultet just hours later.

SOME PERFORMANCE NOTES: straight-tone is critical to the performance of this piece in both vocal and instrumental parts. The lack of vibrato connotes a sense of stark and chilling despair which is bound up in the history of this moment in time: 'crucified, died and burried'. (Good idea utilizing children's voices - that will make the work all the more effective - for me, it also drives home the words, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."

I use (invisble) metronome markings in all of my Sibelius simulations to create a more 'humanized' feel to each recording and to project my own preferences for tempi at times. As I suspected, in this work I set the metronome at [quarter note = 62] on the second quarter note of measure 20 (english setting), which even more greatly accentuates the effect of 'so much grief' since the piece began at [quarter note = 66]. As this piece progresses from first measure to its last it does so with an almost undetectable drag in the tempo exacerbating the harmonic tensions by 'dragging one through' these deliberate experiences of dissonance and consonance.

SIDENOTE: (For more about the extended appoggiatura technique, see 'O Vos Omnes' which can be found under the listing 'I am looking for a lenten choral piece' on this forum. You will find two new settings there. The first (half finished) is in a more strict neoPalestrinian style, but the second was composed utilizing the 'Crucifixus' as a springboard (from Bach's B Minor Mass). It is that second setting that heavily utilizes the extended appoggiatura technique. (keep in mind, this is a sketch--not a finished work).

ONE LAST HONEST THOUGHT: The utter simplicity of this piece has always puzzled me. It is, in fact, one of the most accessible pieces I have ever composed. The harmonic progression in the accompaniment seems juvenile to me -- G-C,G-C, G-Am, G-Am, G-Fmaj7, etc. all suspended over a bass line that seems equally juvenile: C-A-F-G... save my soul, I think almost all popular music uses that 'childish' chord progression. It has an air of musical naivity which borders on amateurism. I have even felt embarrased showing this to other musicians, or to look at it with an 'intellectual musical mind'. But somehow, the text dictates its reason to live. It has no guile, and there seems to be nothing pretentious in it. When composing, many times the act is a struggle or an excercise, or a discipline of mind. This piece just 'happened' to me. These are the kinds of works that seem to be the most transparent. Those are the times when composing music seems as though it was 'delivered' to me finished, rather than 'created' like a recipe. It is in moments and works like these when composing becomes something less human, and more divine.

see below