Introit: Respice in me - Charles H. Giffen

CHGiffen

Edit: I have today (21 April) replaced the score and audio files with slightly updated ones.

Here is my newly composed Introit "Respice in me" (in Latin) for the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost (EF), or the 9th Sunday of Ordinary Time (NO). It is based on an older (and rather simpler, more primitive) setting of mine in English that used the Lectionary Text ("O look on me and be merciful"). The setting is homophonic, rather than polyphonic, as befits the solemn text; hence, it is rather somewhat like a chorale.

The attached edition is in F-minor (sopranos have one high A-flat, and basses descend to low F); however, I also have prepared an edition a semitone lower in E-minor (high G soprano, low E bass but optionally the E may be taken up an octave). Although the work is for a cappella SATB voices, I plan to prepare an edition with optional/rehearsal accompaniment.

Latin text:
Respice in me, et miserere mei, Domine : quoniam unicus et pauper sum ego.
Vide humilitatem meam, et laborem meum : et dimitte omnia peccata mea Deus meus.
Ad te, Domine, levavi animam meam : Deus meus, in te confido, non erubescam.
Psalm 24:16, 18, 1-2a (Vulgate)

English translation:
Turn to me and have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am lonely and afflicted.
Consider my shame and my trouble and forgive all my sins, my God.
To thee, O Lord, I lift up my soul : my God, in thee I put my trust, let me not be ashamed.

francis

Thank you Charles… am I seeing a bit more of a progressive harmonic structure in this new piece as compared to your earlier works?

CHGiffen

Thank you for your kind words, Francis. Actually, much of the harmonic language was already in my original English setting "O look at me and be merciful", written about a quarter of a century ago for "traditional" choir I directed at St. Thomas Aquinas in Charlottesville. After purchasing Finale, I engraved it in 2002.

About five or so years ago, I borrowed from that original setting when composing a trombone quartet which I titled "Chorale and Chaos", in ABA form with the chorale bracketing a rather chaotic and challenging section of variations derived from the chorale. I've also transposed it for up for a local trumpet ensemble.

Here are the original Introit and the trombone quartet.

Whether "Respice in me" is more progressive harmonically than earlier works is something I'm not sure about. The new work is more elaborate, but principally because of the wordier Latin text, as well as the way I adapted the original music.

francis

yes... hearing more 9ths, 11ths and maybe 13ths! very cool! i wish the traddies would get with the contemporary forms of harmonic structure... they are all stuck in the middle ages... I think it is good to keep the architecture, vestments, rubrics of the age old Mass, but heh... I am here to help with new music... sing to the Lord a new song... (mind you, that does NOT mean rock, pop, rag, drag, folk, country, jazz, synth, blues, EDM, rap, or anything else besides organ and polyphony, but I digress...)

CHGiffen

At the top, I replaced the score and audio files with slightly updated versions. The changes are related to my just completed setting with the English Missal text, "Turn to me and have mercy on me, O Lord" (Entrance Antiphon for the 9th Sunday in Ordinary Time) - attached here (the music in the Latin and English versions is almost exactly the same).

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