Adoro Te Devote / Humbly I Adore Thee for SAMen Three parts mixed - for critique

liampmcdonough

Here is a short piece for general use. Perhaps it will be useful to those with small choirs. It is fairly romantic in its harmonic language. I would intend the chant verses to alternate with the "refrain" of verse one. Thoughts?

NihilNominis

I am a sucker for the Romantic sacred idiom. Singable lines, but with some really striking intervals, very effective and accessible.

I like it a lot. Thank you!

Chris Garton-Zavesky

Intriguing. Thank you for this.

Quaeritur: Whose translation is this?

CHGiffen

In total agreement with NihilNominis. A worthy composition indeed.

ServiamScores

This is indeed quite lovely. I'm definitely going to use this. Thank you!

irishtenor

Beautiful!

ServiamScores

A little update: in anticipation of putting this before my choir, I made demo tracks for them. I'm sharing them here in case they help anyone. There are two SAB versions; one with me singing soprano in my range, another with that part doubled up an octave. The latter is obviously synthetic and I keep it turned down pretty low, but it helps get a better sense of the harmony in the proper octave.

Edit: I ended up making a YT video too, that has the individual parts soloed out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UngeApB2csQ

liampmcdonough

Thank you for the kind comments. This practice video is wonderful, ServiamScores. I will definitely be sending the link to my little amateur choir.

@CGZ - the translation is the that of the Monastic Diurnal 1932, likely the work of Canon Winfred Douglas

VocesCapituli

I am going to use this as well. I always include the composers date of birth, what is yours?
D.

liampmcdonough

1993

ServiamScores

Liam, I'm so smitten with this that I've re-engraved it with the full latin set to the motet refrain for verses 1,3,5,7 and then the original chant melody on 2,4,6. We are going to sing it in english this weekend and then the full latin version for a special TLM for the Feast of Ascension in a few weeks. I'm so grateful for this motet. I'm taking the liberty of sharing the full-latin version here since you've already shared the english version.

MichaelRaney

Thank you so much for this composition, I will be bringing it to my choir very soon!

ServiamScores

Liam, this isn't the best rendition ever, but I thought you might like to hear our choir sing your work just the same (I'm always happy to hear someone else do one of my compositions). We sang this on Thursday live during communion. It takes a verse or two, but then the choir settles in a bit and it tightens up.

liampmcdonough

Thank you @ServiamScores; I am glad that you have gotten so much use out of this work, and I hope your choir enjoyed it! My little choir enjoys singing it as well, though I have not had the opportunity to record them.

liampmcdonough

We were preparing this again this week and I thought I should get a cell phone recording during rehearsal so that others could hear the English version live. Still working on that balance and intonation!

ServiamScores

Liam, I cannot tell you how much we love this piece. My schola has gotten so much mileage out of it in both english and latin. We sing it all the time. I simply cannot thank you enough for blessing us with it. Also, your schola sounds great, especially for a cell phone recording.

ServiamScores

As an aside, I'll mention that I was surprised at how fast we took it in our recording from Ascension last year... we don't normally sing it that fast; it's typically right where your recording has it.

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