|
Gregoriana (2003) |
For organ - c. 8'
In memory of Theodore Marier, Founder of the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School, and his beloved wife, Alice. Gregoriana, commissioned by the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston, Massachusetts, is based on three Gregorian melodies as a tribute to Dr. Marier's life-long devotion to the teaching and performance of Gregorian Chant. "Repleatur os meum", a chant traditionally sung at the investiture of choristers, opens the piece with a meditation in ascending arpeggios on the flutes. A contrasting variation on the cornet lends a contemplative aspect to the middle of this first section, before some of the initial material appears once again in transposition. Then intensly rhythmical variations based on the Alleluia from the Pentecost Mass follow, progressing from bass to treble - from the dance of the mortals to the Eternal Joy of the Glorified Bodies. An episode based on "Cor, arca legem", a hymn from the Feast of the Sacred Heart, appears at the centre of this fresco, as a glance at the Beloved. Gregoriana was funded, in part, by grants from the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians, the Estate of Theodore Marier, and donations from devoted friends and students of Dr. Marier. World première by Leo Abbott, Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston, February 22, 2004 .
Copyright © 2003 Naji Hakim