Jubilate Deo was commissioned by Music Celebrations International for the Beethoven Choral Festival. Using the
Jubilate text, the piece incorporates various motifs from Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony. It was premiered on June 15, 2022 at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna under the direction of Dr. Marc Ashley Foster.
Scoring: SATB, organ, optional brass quartet
Text: Psalm 100
Duration: 5:30
Publisher: manuscript
PERUSAL SCORE: coming soon
RECORDING: coming soon
PROGRAM NOTES:
This was a fun piece to write, much like putting together a puzzle! I was thrilled and honored to receive this commission, not only due to the prestige of the festival in Vienna, but also because conductor Marc Ashley Foster and MCI President John Wiscombe have been dear friends, colleagues, and collaborators for nearly two decades.
Since the festival featured the music of Beethoven (originally to celebrate his 250th birthday, then twice delayed by COVID), Marc and John asked me to compose a piece that would “evoke” the Ninth Symphony, while still giving me the freedom to create something that sounded contemporary and original. I felt that the Jubilate Deo text (“Sing joyfully to God”) was a fitting companion to Friedrich Schiller’s An die Freude (“Ode to Joy”).
I decided to adapt (or, in some instances, directly quote) two passages from each of the symphony’s first three movements. The first two measures of the “Ode the Joy” theme from the fourth movement appear in three different places throughout the piece. I also used a portion of the “Ode to Joy” theme in retrograde to create the melody for the “Laudate nomen ejus” section.
