4:15. SATB a cappella
Carus-Verlag 9.668
About
First performance: September 2014, Mérida and Caracas, Venezuela. Rainer Held with the Coro Cámara de Mérida.
The text of the Responsorium “O magnum mysterium”, to be sung liturgically in the midnight darkness, describes the mystery of Christ’s incarnation, from darkness into light. In three sections, the music increases from a piano sound to the concluding Halleluja. In ever-new harmonies, the lyrical-Gregorian motifs emerge in sequences of sixths within the dense, four-part writing. The musical language is modal-harmonic with constantly surprising turns.
Winner of the Choralnet.com Silver Platter Award 2015.
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Preview Score
Text
O magnum mysterium
O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
jacentem in praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera
meruerunt portare
Dominum Christum.
Alleluia.
Deutsch
INFO
Uraufführung: September 2014, Mérida and Caracas, Venezuela. Rainer Held with the Coro Cámara de Mérida.
Der Text des Responsoriums „O magnum mysterium“, liturgisch zu singen im Dunkel der Mitternacht, beschreibt das Geheimnis der Menschwerdung Christi, vom Dunkel in das Licht. In drei Abschnitten steigert sich die Musik vom piano-Klang ins abschließende Halleluja. In immer neuen Zusammenklängen lässt sie lyrisch-gregorianische Motive in Sextführungen innerhalb des dichten, vierstimmigen Satzes hervortreten. Die Tonsprache ist modal-harmonisch mit immer wieder überraschenden Wendungen.
Ausgezeichnet mit dem Choralnet.com Silver Platter Award 2015
Performances
• Coro Cámara de Mérida (Rainer Held, conductor) – September 2014, Mérida and Caracas, Venezuela
• Zürcher Sing-Akademie (Tim Brown, conductor) – May 13th and 14th 2015, Kerkade and Utrecht, Netherlands
• Zürcher Sing-Akademie (Andreas Felber, conductor) – May 28th to 1st June 2015, Festival Corale “La Fabbrica del Canto”, Milan and Turin, Italy
• Zürcher Sing-Akademie (Andreas Felber, conductor) – 6th September 2015, Schubertiade Biel, Switzerland
• NoonSong: sirventes Berlin (Stefan Schuck, conductor) – December 19th 2015, Berlin, Germany
• Chór Filharmonii Częstochowskiej Collegium Cantorum (Rainer Held, conductor) – April 10th 2016, Czestochowie, Poland
• The Meljon Singers (Janette Ruocco, conductor) – November 19th 2016, Swiss Church, London, UK
• Bocca Aperta (Janette Ruocco, lead) – December 14th, 2016, Geffrye Museum, London, UK
• Academic Choir “Angel Malanov” (Darena Popova, conductor) – April 2018, Montreux Choral Festival, Vevey, Switzerland
• Bogor Agricultural University Student Choir Agria Swara (Arvin Zeinullah, conductor) – April 2018, Montreux Choral Festival, Vevey, Switzerland
Upcoming
• Vokalensemble Ardent (Patrick Secchiari, conductor) – December 18th 2022, Casino Bern, Switzerland
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