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
Click on the link below to download a PDF
booklet
available 01/2024
.
FestiveCantataChoir&Organ2024
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 penultimate coda
of the Finale. 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
closing 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.
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