Choral Choir (SATB) - Level 5 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1082626 Composed by Erik Spangler. A Cappella,Classical,Contemporary,Praise & Worship,Sacred. Octavo. 6 pages. Erik Spangler #686838. Published by Erik Spangler (A0.1082626). Commissioned by Allen Buskirk for the Mount Calvary Choir, Baltimore, MD. While searching for liturgical texts associated with Pentecost, I was immediately drawn to the sequence of Veni Sancte Spiritus as an invocation of all the divine qualities that are recognized across the world’s major religions. I was particularly moved by a recording of the Gregorian chant on this text, in which groups of three phrases alternate between low and high voices. I began my own setting of the sequence by adapting many of the Gregorian chant phrases, from memory and with varying degrees of similarity to the original melody, passing them through different modal colors. I followed a similar pattern of formal alternation between high and low voices, while expanding each phrase of the chant into a two-part texture. Elements of both Late Medieval and Renaissance counterpoint are adopted in combination with more Eastern-influenced heterophony, in which two voices follow the same melodic outline with individual variations and ornamentation. As the piece progresses, overlapping duos expand into three-part and finally four-part texture. I aim to evoke a sense of connection with ancient ritual and musical forms, alongside a more modern harmonic gravity that favors certain dissonances in relationship to unisons, fifths and other “perfect†intervals.
