Pax, One of my first compositions of the year. I challenged myself to write almost exclusively on paper & pen with minimal use of an instrument. Only final edits were made on notation software so not everything is 100%, but it has been a great experience writing on paper because you have to think of the text; unlike writing on computer where I always felt like writing an essay with a due date!
I had the image of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in my mind while writing, so it is best used for that moment, but like most Eucharistic texts it could definitely be used for a post-Communion. This piece will be part of a collection of Eucharistic motets in honor of Blessed Carlo Acutis which I will share with the forum. Please keep me in your prayers that I may finish them before Easter. I hope this motet may be of help for your choirs.
Excellent! I'd like to hear it by the boys and men at Kings! It's really deeply moving. I'm not at all accusing you of 'borrowing from someone else' (far from it!), but there is a hymn tune, a chorale I believe, whose name I can't recall just now that happens to share the first five or six notes of your motet.
Wonderfully crafted! For several years now, I, too, have not used an instrument (usually it was a piano) when while composing. It has proved quite liberating as well as inspirational.
Exceptionally beautiful! Would you consider releasing a score in Latin? I'm not able to use English at my masses. As best as I could see, the English text you used has the same meter.
A wonderful piece, thanks for posting it with bilingual text underlay.
Maybe the chorales that came M. Jackson Osborn to mind after hearing the incipit were the Genevan psalm tunes for Psalm 5 and Psalm 9? The melody for Psalm 9 was recycled by Ulenberg in his catholic counterpart to the Genevan Psalter for Psalm 117 (Psalm 116 in the Septuaginta numbering used by Ulenberg).
Nun lobet Gott im hohen Thron is also one of my all-time favorite hymns. Here is my setting (and also the English version "Sing praise to God in heaven above"), in the most recent revision.
@CHGiffen Your addition of a discantus counter voice is a nice effect. By whom is the English translation? Is it in the public domain or is it necessary to obtain permission for using it?
The English translation is found at no. 210 in the Vatican II Hymnal, but it is without attribution. And no attribution was provided to me when I harmonized it for the hymnal.
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