Speaker
Choir I: SSAATTBB (including SSATTTTB soli)
Choir II: SSAATTBB
perc(1):vib/crots(hand-held)/floor. tom-t/BD(with drumsticks and superball(s) on sticks)/susp.cyms
Abbreviations (PDF)
Boosey & Hawkes
This is a large work for double choir and percussionist composed in 2020/21 for the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunkchor of Leipzig. It is a setting of a sacred music drama (or a liturgical morality allegorical text) by Hildegard of Bingen. She originally made her own musical setting of this in 1151. Hers was the first ever medieval musical drama and concerns the struggle for the human soul in a battle between Good and Evil, represented by the Virtues and the Devil.
In my score there are four sections. In Part 1 the Virtues (Choir 1) meet the Patriarchs and Prophets (represented by Choir 2 who also later represent the Souls Imprisoned in Bodies and provide a purely abstract musical presence throughout). We also meet the main character, the Soul sung by a solo soprano. She is unhappy and eager to go to Heaven.
In Part 2 the Devil intervenes and tries to win her. Various Virtues (represented by solo voices from Choir 1) confront him. They are Knowledge of God, Humility, Charity, Fear of God, Obedience, Faith, Hope, Chastity, Innocence, Celestial Love, Discipline, Modesty, Mercy and Victory.
In Part 3 they battle for the eternal life of the Soul and in Part 4 eventually overcome and conquer Satan, binding him in chains. Chastity reminds him that she “trod your head underfoot, and in the form of the Virgin brought forth a sweet miracle, wherein the Son of God came in to the world.”
The music throughout alternates between full homophonic and contrapuntal choral textures, the various solo voices, the sound of the Devil who speaks but does not sing and various percussive sounds provided by one player on hand-held crotales, vibraphone, suspended cymbal, floor tom-tom and bass drum.
James MacMillan, 2023
"MacMillan sets the Latin text with echoes of Gregorian chorales, combining them with complexly woven, yet sensually shimmering, at times also overwhelmingly luminous soundscapes."
Leipziger Volkszeitung