Sing A New Song Unto The Lord
A Festive Cantata
for Soprano Solo, SATB Voices, and Organ
(16 pages of music)
Original Text and Music by
Ennis  Fruhauf

I.    Introduction
II.   Prayer  1
III.  Trio
IV.  Prayer  2
V.   Fugue
VI.  Finale

Notes

         “Sing a new song unto the Lord” is an abbreviated cantata in six movements. It encompasses multiple stylistic traits and combines a blend of traditional and innovative structural formats into its design.

        The Introduction presents the opening text, a familiar paraphrase drawn from The Psalms of David, in bold dotted rhythms. Prayer I, a hymn-like orison, is scored for slow-moving SATB voices, with a free soprano solo descant floating above the choir.

        The Trio, a brief aria for soprano, introduces the text, “Alleluia,” in combination with a motivic theme that appears again in the fugal fifth movement, and in the penul-timate coda of the Finale. The intervening Prayer II is similar to Prayer I, with the addition of an organ solo, woven in contrapuntal duet with the solo.

        The fifth  movement, Fugue transforms the motivic theme of  the aria  from  minor to major modality and provides a merry chase before giving way to a return of the Introduction’s bold dotted rhythms, presented as a recapitulatory Finale. A quietly contrasting  penultimate  coda  recalls the motivic ‘Alleluia’ and fugue theme in stretto, then  ends with the return of the introduction's sparkling éclat.

        With the exception of the fugue's contrapuntal rigors, where the polyphonic textures are only occasionally doubled by the organ, A Festival Cantata is melodically and tonally conservative in its overall  approach  and varied  in structure,  style and  format.  The  organ  plays an  integral role in  knitting  together  the overall  fabric and providing both accompaniment and support.