Exposition
The above is a relatively simple three-part setting of Ubi Caritas for SAA, one of the compositions I’m writing for the girls’ choir and women’s schola. I think it could easily be sung by TBB or even three Baritones, if sung an octave below what is written. The top line follows the chant, albeit stretched out in places, while for the other parts, I was thinking stylistically of a mixture of Durufle and Dalitz. The piece has some tighter harmonies, but polyphonic entrances occur as well.
There are five systems that repeat three times; thus once the choir knows the first two pages, it knows the entire piece, the Amen excepted. In the fourth system (timeamus), Alto 1 sings the chant melody from Lumen ad Revelationem Gentium against the chant of Ubi Caritas — well, almost. It’s approximately “Lu-men ad re-ve-la-ti gen-ti-um et_ glo-ri Is-ra-el”. There just aren’t quite enough syllables in timeamus.
Related Compositions
About the Featured Image
The featured image is a detail of Duccio’s Washing of the Feet. It is in the public domain in the United States, according to wikiart.
