Scoring: female chorus, oboe (doubles eng.hn), clarinet (doubles
bs.cl.), bassoon (doubles contra. and washboard). 2 percussionists
(I. crotales, glock., chimes, bell tree, sus. cym., water
gong, tamtam, 3 tomtoms, bass drum, cabasa, guiro, metal
washboard; II. vibes, mar., chmes, almglocken, high tri.,
auto coil, tamtam, snare dr., lg. wdblk., 4 temple blks.,
sm. maraca., sandpaper blks., guiro, metal washboard), harp
(doubles ratchet), 2 pianos (both double metal music stand),
2 va, 2 vc, 2 vb
Duration: 15 minutes
Premiere:
23 April 2003
Warner Concert Hall, Oberlin OH
Steven Brewer - conductor
Program notes:
The music for the Magnificat was composed
over a five-day period at the beginning of April 2003. The
idea of writing a Magnificat came to me without warning.
One day, I found myself mesmerized by the gravity of the
first line of text (“My soul doth magnify the Lord”),
and found the possibility of my existence reflecting the
presence of a divine being, or compromising a tiny piece
of a puzzle that could never be seen or understood, alarming.
Threatened and astounded by this notion, I attempted to
capture my feelings through this work.
Although I am not an incredibly religious person,
I have found myself drawn to the texts of the Roman Catholic
tradition (particularly in Latin) as a source of inspiration,
not only for the beauty of the language, but for the mysterious
and evocative qualities it embodies.
The text of the Magnificat, the Canticle of
the Virgin Mary, comes from the Gospel of St. Luke (11,
46-55) and refers to the first words of the Latin Vulgate
translation: Magnificat anima mea Dominum. Although the
text has been set by many composers for both sacred and
secular use, the Magnificat has its place in the liturgy
at the close of the Vespers.
Musically, the piece presents two opposing forces:
the push and pull between tonality (sacred) and atonality
(profane), as well as the ambiguous spaces in between. The
tonality of the chorus, which begins in d minor, is slowly
corrupted by the orchestra, which attempts to defocus the
chorus with atonality over the course of the work. The feeling
of pushing and pulling is done though varied use of a hexatonic
collection {0,1,4,5,7,8} which contains both major and minor
triads, a unifying link between the tonal and atonal dimensions.
This dialectic, which runs throughout, is not fully realized
until the last line of text, when the chorus returns in
‘declamato’ D major, only to sink like a balloon
into an atonal abyss.
The music of Magnificat is dedicated
to Stefan Tcherepnin, who, about two years ago suggested
that I write a piece in d minor, because it was the ‘saddest
of all keys’.
-V.C.
23. April.2003
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