New Music: Alleluia
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You will recall that when I cleared out the tub of church music a couple of weeks ago, I found several pieces that were still in manuscript; I had never transcribed them into Finale for proper printing and playback. “Alleluia” was the most significant of those.
The manuscript is extraordinarily tidy. It is clear I took some pains in drawing the notes. It’s on folio manuscript paper, “symphonic,” i.e., 14 staves on the page. Its 122 measures cover fifteen pages. It’s pretty handsome, still, after thirty-something years.
So this past week I worked on getting it into Finale.
I should have started from scratch, but I had an old file that I had started a long time ago and then updated about ten years ago, and it had the last section with all the sixteenth notes already in, so I just converted that file into the current Finale.
I will spare you the problems with that approach, but it was frustrating; Finale’s programmers break stuff every time they release a new version. Also frustrating: typing the word Alleluia 182 times and then realizing that I had misspelled it every time — A- le- lu- ia. Fortunately, I was able to copy the lyrics from the “lyrics window,” paste them into the word processor, change the A- to Al-, and paste it back. It was actually the easiest part of the process.
So what is “Alleluia'“? It is a work for SATB chorus, organ, and orchestral tom-toms. It’s a monster. Over the 7/8 ostinato of the drum, the organ and chorus begin simply enough, with a unison G intonation of Alleluia.
But then the vocal lines start shifting, overlapping. The organ throws in a modal appoggiatura, which then is picked up by the chorus. The straight G’s begin to stray into A’s; dissonance appears.
The sopranos break free and begin their own melody; other parts soon do the same.
All this time the tempo has been accelerating, and the music getting louder, until the chorus is consumed by a violent storm of sound. Abruptly it stops, and over gentle arpeggios, the choir gives voice to God: “Be still and know…”
Finally, the alleluias return, but gentle, warm, peaceful, with gratitude.
I cannot imagine who I was writing this for. Certainly no choir I had contact with would have been able to do it. Oh well, perhaps it can find its AUDIENCE now.
A quick Lichtenbergian observation before I share the actual piece: I was struck by the boldness of my harmonic choices in the final section. Very Hans-Zimmerian. I was amused that after the modal storm, the finale gives us lovely tonal centers in the key of G major, but ends in B major like a burst of light.
Here’s my point: Untrained amateur that I am, how did I know to pull the tonal center from G up to B at the very end for that effect? I DIDN’T. I JUST DID IT. I have no firm memory of the process, but I can tell you it involved massive ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS > GESTALT > SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATION. Go thou and do likewise…
