Organ - Level 4 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.549915
Composed by James M. Guthrie. Contemporary,Instructional. Score. 3 pages. Jmsgu3 #3911787. Published by jmsgu3 (A0.549915).
In Nomine: A prelude to the St Luke Organ Book (by Daniel Pinkham) for one single organ manual. Subtitled The Little Time Machine, the composition features one iteration of the In Nomine cantus firmus. As the piece progresses, the cantus is treated in medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, classical, romantic, and modern styles. I performed this piece just before the world premiere of Daniel Pinkham's St. Luke Organ Book in 2006.
The history of In Nomine is rooted in its origin as a type of contrapuntal instrumental composition by 16th-century English composers, usually for a consort of viols, lute, or keyboard, based on a version of a piece of plainchant. The name In Nomine was adopted for this type of piece after the English composer John Taverner composed an instrumental piece based on the plainchant Gloria Tibi Trinitas to which he set the words In nomine Domini in his Gloria Tibi Trinitas six-voice Mass. Over the next 150 years, English composers worked this melody into In Nomine pieces of ever more fantastic stylistic range. This set a fashion, and several 20th-century composers, such as Peter Maxwell Davies and Roger Smalley, have quoted In Nomines in their works.
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The In Nomine played a significant role in developing English polyphony. It is a title given to many pieces of English polyphonic, predominantly instrumental music, first composed during the 16th century. The In Nomine was the chief means by which the grand tradition of vocal polyphony was brought to bear on the evolution of instrumental music in England.Â
The In Nomine is considered the most conspicuous single form in the early development of English consort music and is significant in the genesis of chamber music in England. It marked the first time a specific instrumental style was formed, and it influenced the development of English polyphony by bringing the tradition of vocal polyphony into the realm of instrumental music.
Despite various attempts by scholars to elucidate its almost legendary origin, the mystery of the origin of the In Nomine remains unsolved.
