Blog Archives

Gloria

24/7/2024

Glory be to God on high…

In most liturgical contexts that I know of, the ‘Gloria’ comes after the ‘Kyrie’, quite early on in the service. But the 1662 Book of Common Prayer saves this hymn of praise until after Communion, and I really like the thinking behind that.

There’s about as much text in this movement as in the other three put together, but I didn’t want it to feel too long, especially as it comes at the end. Fortunately, most of the words invite fast and active music, full of joy and exultation.

But because it follows Communion, I didn’t want it to start with a crash (the way some Glorias do). So I found a way to build up gradually to its full excitement, using those ‘chords of fourths’ that are in all the other movements…

The opening of the ‘Gloria’ comes from the words that the angels sang to the shepherds when proclaiming the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem (see Luke 2:14). I love that I’m joining so many other composers in trying to re-imagine how wonderful that must have sounded!

Keeping in mind that “great multitude of the heavenly host”, when the tempo picks up I get the upper half of the choir singing a bar or two behind the lower half. This makes a cool effect: cascading waves of sound. And the other simple way to build excitement is with melodies that gradually get higher and higher, like this…

But what’s really interesting about the ‘Gloria’ is how much of the text is about – once again – the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The whole middle third is all “Lamb of God” and “have mercy on us” again.

I have to admit, I was going to try and gloss over this somewhat, thinking that we’ve got the picture and we should just get on with celebrating, but all that text wouldn’t let me! It invites a reprise of the quiet, reflective ‘Agnus Dei’ music, as well as the supplications of the ‘Kyrie’, so I duly obliged. And in doing so, found a new, deeper level of expression (it’s amazing what a key change will do)…

(this finishes on what is probably my favourite chord in the whole piece)

And, in all that, I finally realised that the reason for all this text is to draw our attention to what we are glorifying God for most of all – which is his mercy, his grace, his love to us expressed in Christ. It’s all very well to glorify him for being omnipotent, omniscient, and all the other ‘big’ things like that. But we’ve missed the point if we don’t find the greatest glory of God expressed in Christ.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

Having reached that point, it’s time to pick up the tempo again and race to the end in celebration! Not having exhausted the musical possibilities by the time I reached the end of the text, I figured I could justify one of those elaborate ‘Amens’…

And the closing bars echo back a climactic bit of the ‘Sanctus’ – so now every other movement has made a reappearance in this one!

Praise God! This was so much fun to write. I wouldn’t mind doing it all again, if anyone wants to commission another Mass or Communion Service!

0 Comments

Agnus Dei

17/7/2024

0 Comments

O Lamb of God,
who takest away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.

The ‘Agnus Dei’ is sung directly before Communion is taken, focusing our attention on Jesus Christ as the one who gave his body and blood to atone for our sin. It is almost always quiet, and its gentle repetitions encourage meditation.

The opening melody that the choir sings (after the organ gives them almost every note except for the one they have to start singing!) is based on a little tune in my Piano Sonata that I never expected to use in this way.

Here’s its original context, right at the beginning of the ‘At Church’ movement, sounding lively and a little mischievous…

And here’s how I’ve transformed it to use in the Agnus Dei…

I turn the phrase downwards at the end, to paint the sadness of “the sins of the world”, and I leave the choir hanging for a moment without the organ… Then comes the peaceful supplication, “have mercy on us.”

The words here deliberately echo the opening ‘Kyrie’, asking for mercy. So I thought it made sense to do this with the music as well. I put the nine-bar phrasing of the ‘Kyrie’ chant in the organ, underneath the simple words of the choir…

After that, the music simply follows repetitions of the text, but changing key to arrive at a particularly expressive chord at the start of the last stanza. From there I had to find a quick but gentle way back to the home key (C) to ensure it sounds like the prayer is answered!

0 Comments

Sanctus & Benedictus

10/7/2024

0 Comments

Holy, holy, holy...

The ‘Sanctus’ has always felt to me like the most exciting part of the service. When my Uncle Gary was locum priest at St Mary’s in Adelaide, he would always make sure that the bell in the bell tower was rung at this point of the service!

What’s so exciting? Well, the text comes from Isaiah 6, and it’s an awesome vision of the LORD God himself, holy and glorious and downright terrifying. God’s holiness is good… too good.

How to express holiness in music? There are lots of different approaches, and many of my favourites are quite mystical – I love the ‘Sanctus’ of Harold Darke’s Collegium Regale Communion Service in E, for instance. But, with that church bell in mind, I wanted something with a bit more force and energy – something to wake people up!

“Holy, holy, holy” – as in the Kyrie, there’s an inherent threeness to this text, which can’t help but come out in the music. More nine-bar phrases punctuate the opening…

But the other key number here is seven. It’s a significant biblical number (connoting perfection, completeness), and it’s also the number of notes in a typical scale. So I put an continuously ascending scale in the bass (disguised at first by ‘hiding’ every third note – see above) and let it loop itself over and over.

At first it works against the nine-bar phrases (making for some cool harmonies), but later it comes into its own. There’s no mistaking the endlessly rising scale in this bit...

(I love how the text lets me overlap the word 'glory' like that!)

Eventually it needs to be cut off so that we can go on… but what better way to do this than with an abrupt change of key? A sudden arrival in E-flat major heralds the interruption of the ‘Benedictus’…

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord…

This line comes from Psalm 118:26, and all four Gospel accounts have it explicitly referencing the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem the week before his crucifixion. I’m not the first composer to think that a solo voice here makes for good dramatic effect!

I’ve written the ‘hosannas’ as quiet responses to this, bringing out the poignancy of this moment. ‘Hosanna!’ is a shout of praise, although it literally means ‘Save us!’ – and this, in context, is what Jesus is about to do. But it will take dying on the Cross.

0 Comments

Kyrie

3/7/2024

0 Comments

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

This is oldest text of the Communion Service. Even in the Latin version of the Mass, these words are in Greek (the first language of the New Testament): Kyrie eleison. In fact, the phrase can be traced even further back, found in several Psalms.

It’s pretty humbling to be saying these words first up every week in church. It really reminds you that you have no place speaking to God at all without his grace and forgiveness. It’s a prayer of confession.

The idea that this is a good way to begin a church service seems to come from one of Jesus’ parables, in which he contrasts the proud prayers of the Pharisees, trusting in their own righteousness, with the humble attitude of a repentant tax collector. “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” the tax collector cries, standing at a distance and “unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven” (Luke 18:13).

A plea for mercy like this suggests music of sorrow and desolation, but in many Masses and Communion Services the tone is instead rather peaceful. This got me thinking, and eventually I decided to take a similar approach.

You see, I don’t think it’s just a request for mercy. I think it’s a reminder to ourselves that God is merciful. We don’t repeat the words every week because we doubt God’s mercy, but because we know it – and need it.

So the music should express God’s mercy, not just our humility.

There’s a lovely threefold structure to the prayer, emphasised by many composers (including me) with triplicate repetitions. I’ve gone even further, and phrased it into nine bars of 3/4 time…

I love the effect of breaking the phrasing into 2, 3 and 4 bars (instead of just 3 x 3) – it slows down the prayer, and almost forces meditation on the words as you hear them.

The melody is basically just a chant between two notes a third apart – simplicity is key to expressing humility!

I was able to take this melody straight from my Piano Sonata, but had to find a way to work in the extra words from the BCP (Book of Common Prayer): “Lord have mercy upon us”…

But actually, these little interludes work nicely to draw out the prayer, fitting over the nine-bar phrases. So each line of the prayer gets its own space, as though we are praying to each member of the Trinity in turn.

I think I’ve found my key motif for the rest of the Communion Service as well… those organ chords built with fourths are simple and distinctive…

0 Comments

Audio Divina

The Blog in which David John Lang listens to Good Music

About this Blog

The views expressed in this blog are my own, and don't necessarily have anything in common with the views of other composers or musicians mentioned herein.

Gloria

Agnus Dei

Sanctus & Benedictus

Kyrie

Audio Divina

About this Blog

Archives

Categories

Home

Contact