frumuspub.picardy.mortalflesh.notes

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Choral Meditation on
"Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence"
A Four Verse Hymn Anthem for Choir and Organ
Tune: Picardy: French Carol, 17th Century
(from Chansons populaires de France, 1860)
Text: Liturgy of St. James, paraphrased by Gerard Moultrie (1829-1885)
(5 Pages)

Setting by Ennis Fruhauf

Notes

“Let all mortal flesh keep silence” is an introspective four verse hymn anthem for unison men’s and women’s (bass and treble) voices with organ accompaniment. The text is imbued with richly metaphorical verse to portray the mysteries of the Eucharist.

        The text is drawn from the Liturgy of St. James, paraphrased by Gerard Moultrie (1829-1885) and was first published in the second edition of Lyra Eucharistica, 1864. The original folk text associated with the tune (named after a French Province) is "Jesus Christ s'habille en pauvre", a parody of the story of Lazarus and the rich man. It was transcribed and published in Chansons populaires des provences de France (1860), and later adopted for use in The English Hymnal (1906)

        Both conservative and muted in nature, a unison setting of the first verse is characterized by a brief descending counter-motiv in the organ accompaniment.   The second verse introduces a free canon (at the fifth) in the organ accompaniment that echoes strains of the hymn tune as sung by the voices. The third verse is set in a contrasting key and introduces a fanfare-like figuration that is repeated against consecutive phrases of the melody; it builds toward a dramatic pause, to be concluded by the stanza's final phrase. The original key returns for the final verse, presenting a free canon (at the octave) in the organ accompaniment. A brief organ cadence recalls the fanfare figuration of the third verse.

        Given that “Let all mortal flesh keep silence” is traditionally a communion hymn, this setting will provide an appropriate eucharistic anthem or serve as an an offertory suitable for the season of Epiphany, all the more so with its strong textual reference to the bringing of light and banishing of darkness. While making minimal technical demands on singers and organist, the sonorities and textures of Picardy portray elements of the sublime in keeping with an extraordinarily text expressive.