Soprano, Cello, Organ and Wine Glasses
De Apostolis is an arrangement of a responsorial chant by Hildegard von Bingen. The text–De Apostolis: O Lucidissima Apostolorum turba–is a sequence praising all the saints. Like much of Hildegard’s work the text is full of vivid imagery and metaphor that inspires a chant of equally ecstatic melodic sweep and invention. I took the original Hildegard chant, translated it to modern rhythmic notation and added a cello and organ accompaniment. Wanting to create a musical equivalent to the spiritual ether suggested in Hildegard’s text, I included a chorus of droning wine glasses on the root and fifth of the work’s prevailing mode. This version is for solo soprano; however, as a responsorial chant and I could easily imagine a small women’s choir joining the soloist for the responsorial sections (doubling or possibly in simple harmony or counterpoint as well).
This recording is of the premiere with Lenore Alford, Organ, Leanne Zacharias, Cello, Gitanjali Mathur, Soprano, and various UT Austin composers on Wine Glasses.
Premiered 11.14.07 Bates Recital Hall, UT Austin, Austin, TX
performances
6.20.10 St. Johns Episcopal Church, Ross, CA
3.28.10 Battell Chapel, Yale University, New Haven, CT
3.14.08 Bates Recital Hall, UT Austin, Austin TX