Searching for Justin Breame - 4 results.
Three Sayings is a setting of three well known texts (including All Shall Be Well) from the book The Revelations of Divine Love (1395) written by the anchoress and Christian mystic Julian of Norwich. Scored for high voices (SSA) and organ, with occasional solos and divisions for the singers, the setting's tripartite structure takes the listener through emotions of veneration, tenderness, joy and humility, as it follows the emotive content of the three texts.
This simple setting produces a sense of warmth and comfort, with attention being paid to a leisurely tempo and a subtle gradation of tone and dynamic in bars such as 20-24. It is also known as the Prayer to One's Guardian Angel, with October 2nd being the Feast of the Guardian Angels, or in some places the first Sunday of September.
This warm and atmospheric setting of the classic eucharist text makes full use of the double choir, yet is still moderate in terms of
difficulty. Would work equally well as a concert piece or for church services. First performed on 15th June 2017 for the Feast of Corpus
Christi, by the Norwich Cathedral choir directed by Ashley Grote.
It is suggested that there should be no fewer than two singers to a part to allow for the occasional divisions later in the piece.
Overall, the piece should be calm, with attention given to the dynamic of the overlapping chords of the two choirs.
This setting of the Magnificat was written as a response to the Nunc Dimittis by Arvo Pa?rt, though it functions perfectly well on its
own or paired with other settings of the Nunc Dimittis. I was moved by the humility, which comes across in Pa?rt's setting and this is
something I have tried to maintain in my setting of the Magnificat. As a starting point I used the echoing/call-and-response idea found
in the last section of the Nunc Dimittis, but rather than having the two note phrase echoed across the parts, I have used a two-note
phrase which is compounded, overlapping between the tenor and soprano, and other voices subsequently, forming a strong conclusion in the
last section. There is also an underlying tension found in the Nunc Dimittis which I have tried to maintain, whilst also adding depth
via the use of polarity as often found in Pa?rt's work. In closing, I decided that rather than have a resounding, jubilant finish I felt
it appropriate to maintain the humble feel with a more plaintive, and again, tense final Amen which mirrors the close of the
Nunc Dimittis.
The recording is by The Cantus Ensemble directed by Dominic Brennan.