Jubilate Deo was commissioned by Music Celebrations International for the Beethoven Choral Festival and premiered on June 15, 2022 at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna under the direction of Dr. Marc Ashley Foster. Set to the traditional “Jubilate Deo” text (“Sing joyfully to God”), the work draws inspiration from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, reimagining its musical motifs within a contemporary choral setting. Fragments of the “Ode to Joy” theme appear throughout the piece (including a brief use in retrograde), uniting the spirit of Beethoven’s music with a modern expression of joyful praise.
Scoring: SATB, organ, optional brass quartet
Text: Psalm 100
Duration: 5:30
Publisher: manuscript
PERUSAL SCORE: coming soon
RECORDING: coming soon
Jubilate Deo was commissioned by Music Celebrations International for the Beethoven Choral Festival and premiered on June 15, 2022 at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna under the direction of Dr. Marc Ashley Foster. Set to the traditional Jubilate Deo text (“Sing joyfully to God”), the work draws inspiration from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, incorporating and reimagining several of its musical motifs.
Composed as a tribute to the festival’s focus on Beethoven—originally planned in celebration of his 250th birthday and later postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic—the piece seeks to evoke the spirit of the Ninth Symphony while maintaining a contemporary and original musical language. The Jubilate Deo text serves as a natural complement to Friedrich Schiller’s An die Freude (“Ode to Joy”), uniting themes of joy and praise.
Musically, the work weaves together adapted—and at times directly quoted—material from the first three movements of the symphony. Fragments of the iconic “Ode to Joy” theme from the fourth movement also appear throughout, including a creative use of the melody in retrograde to shape the “Laudate nomen ejus” section. The result is a musical “puzzle” that both honors Beethoven’s legacy and reimagines it through a modern choral lens.