With good reason, there is much sadness on the forum right now. I feel it deeply myself. The suspension of public Masses in our country (whether you agree with that course of action or not) is both sobering and a radical departure from our normal experience. The situation is unlike anything I can remember. We--perhaps especially we church musicians--are "hanging up our instruments" as it were and going into a sort of exile, during a time when, normally, we would be very active, preparing for Holy Week and Easter. I hope and pray to God, in His mercy, that this exile will be short-lived. I pray also that we may each have an even greater appreciation for the Mass once this epidemic has subsided.
For myself, I felt compelled to express my sorrow in music. I could find no more appropriate text than the Super Flumina Babylonis. At the following link is a free PDF and digital rendering of the piece:
I like the fact that the first polyphonic setting doesn't have a strong (authentic) cadence (V-I), just a tenor (weak) cadence, followed by a plagal progression. Very arresting. It has the affect of making the authentic cadence at the end of the second section of polyphony sound very harsh and unsettled.
In the back of my mind, I've thought that the second theme was maybe a bit close to the theme from Schindler's List. I've made a few slight modifications to further differentiate the second theme (going to E-flat rather than C, for example). Most of the score is unchanged. The PDF on my website has been updated (also on CPDL).
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