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"Sing A New Song Unto The Lord"
I. Introduction
II. Prayer 1
III. Trio
IV. Prayer 2
V. Fugue
VI. Finale
(21 pages)
"Sing a new song unto the Lord" is an abbreviated cantata in six movements; it encompasses several writing styles and similarly employs several traditional structural formats in its creation and design.
The Introduction presents the opening text, a familiar paraphrase from The Psalms of David, in bold dotted rhythms. Prayer I, a hymn-like distillation of many idiomatic orisons drawn from contemporary Christian worship, is scored for slow-moving SATB voices, with a free soprano solo descant soaring above the choir.
The brief aria that follows introduces the text, "Alleluia," in combination with a motivic theme that appears again in the fugal fifth movement, and once more in the penultimate coda of the Finale. The intervening Prayer II is similar to Prayer I, with the addition of an organ solo, woven in contrapuntal duet with the soprano solo.
The fugal fifth movement transforms the motivic theme of the aria from minor to major mode. Following its extended development, it gives way to the return of the Introduction’s bold dotted rhythms, presented as a recapitulatory Finale. A quietly contrasting penultimate coda recalls the motivic ‘Alleluia’ theme in stretto, and the Finale ends with the return of the brilliant éclat heard at its beginning..
With the exception of the Fugue, which makes particular technical choral demands (where the polyphonic textures are performed without being doubled by the organ), A Festival Cantata is melodically and tonally conservative and traditional in its overall approach, and is varied in structure, style and format. The organ plays an integral part by knitting together the overall fabric of the work, and by providing essential lines of the counterpoint that characterizes the composition throughout.
Copyright © 2004 Ennis Fruhauf
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