Program Note:

During the several years in the 1980s that Hagen served as conductor of the NYU Washington Square Chorus he wrote numerous short pieces that would serve, through their rehearsal and performance, to improve the ensemble’s musical skills. Little Prayers collects five of them. The homophonic treatment of Almighty Father explores enharmonic spellings. (At its midpoint the choir cadences on a G minor triad that is spelled A#-D-Fx-A#, only to pivot to G minor for a final cadence in D major with an added #7.) The second movement, a setting of the Book of Common Prayer version of the Lord’s Prayer, utilizes mirror harmonies and limns its binary structure with tricky enharmonic pivot points (on the words “bread” and “evil”). Written as a brief personal Ave for Vincent Persichetti, Why Do You Seek Rest? is harmonized in his style. Crisp diction is practiced in the forceful, ironic setting of Thomas Mann, which alternates between ringing declamatory and pealing legato singing in the brief passage culled from Death in Venice. The final movement practices phrase shaping and melismatic passagework in its flowing, Samuel Barber-influenced setting of Søren Kierkegaard.

Almighty Father was written on August 15th, 1987; Why Do You Seek Rest? on January 22nd, 1987; and We May Be Heroic on 1 August 1987—all in New York City. Our Father was written on July 3rd, 1987; and Lord, God in Heaven on July 9th, 1987 at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Dedicated to the memory of Vincent Persichetti, the prayers were first performed as a set on January 15th, 1986 by the New York University Washington Square Chorus, conducted by Daron Hagen, at the Alliance Française in New York City.

Selected Reviews:

I was especially taken with Daron Aric Hagen's Little Prayers. The American Repertory Singers are excellent—sensitive and well-controlled—but without any of the prissiness that can afflict British choral singing.

— Alan Gimbel, The American Record Guide, November / December 1997

In Little Prayers, Daron Aric Hagen's technique is reminiscent of Persichetti or Stravinsky. As a group the five prayers are perhaps the least melodic pieces on the recording but are nonetheless beautiful and would compliment any sacred choral program. Nestor's use of dynamic contrast to illustrate Hagen's text painting is exquisite.

— Vernon E. Huff, Choral Journal, February, 1998