The Song of Gabriel (2010)

For:

  • Mixed Chorus and String Orchestra

  • Mixed Chorus, Violin, and Piano (or) Organ

Year: 2010

Duration: 11’

First Performance: 7 December 2010 / Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, Brookfield, WI / Brookfield Central HS Chorus / Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra / Philip Olson

Text: Sabine Baring-Gould (adapted by the composer)

Dedication: “Commissioned by the BCHS Chorus, the Wisconsin Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Performing Arts, Brookfield, Wisconsin, 2010.”

Publisher: Peermusic Classical

By Leonardo da Vinci - Public Domain, Wikipedia.

Program Note:   

The cantus firmus for this motet is a triple-meter presentation of Angelus ad virginem, a carol favored by 13th century Franciscan friars as found in the Dublin Troper (c.1360) and mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale. Contrapuntally wound about the original carol in duple-meter is a treatment of the tune based on Edgar Pettman’s arrangement published in his Modern Christmas Carols (1892). The text is based on passages about the Annunciation from Luke (1.26-38) and the Magnificat (Luke 1.46-55) as paraphrased from Charles Bordes by Sabine Baring-Gould. The tune has yielded numerous treatments by folk and pop musicians—most recently one by Sting in the single, Russians (1985).