Prologue, Five Variations,
and Finale
on
Veni Creator Spiritus
Ambrosian plainchant melody for the Easter hymn
“Hic est diesverus Dei”
and source of the hymn tune for
“Komm, Gott Schoepfer, heiliger Geist”
Prologue, Five Variations, and Finale
on the plainchant melody,
Veni Creator Spiritus, is an
extended composition for solo organ, written in a French post-Romantic
manner. It was inspired by the breadth and harmonic language of Maurice Duruflé’s magnum opus for organ
on the same chant tune.
The
Prologue
states the hymn
in a boldly declamatory manner. In the first variation, the chant sounds as
a pedal solo, accompanied on manuals by a harmonized hymn version of the
same tune (“Komm, Gott Schopfer, heiliger Geist”); each phrase
is separated by cadenza-like interpolations. The second variation
presents the hymn tune soaring above animated rolling triplet figurations
in a miniature toccata. The chant's
cantus firmus migrates
to the tenor register in the third variation for a richly
harmonized appearance at a slowed tempo. In the fourth variation,
the plainchant is elaborately ornamented, recalling figurations from
the Prologue: it is sounded in canon between soprano and alto voices and harmonized by lower voices, all as accompaniment to a
simultaneous cantus firmus statement in the pedal. In the fifth variation, Veni Creator Spiritus reappears as a
tenor solo, accompanied by soprano and alto voices in lively duet and
underpinned by pedal.
The Finale's brooding
introduction gives way to a developmental presentation of the plainsong
tune soaring above and below accompanying voices that move in constant
triplet motion. As subsequent phrases appear and are interrupted by
episodic interludes, intensity builds through to the last chant phrase,
sounded in augmented note values. A bold coda is heralded by the return of
ornamental figurations from the Prologue and fourth variation,
spinning out the chant’s Amen in overlapping imitation; other
brief motivic reminders from the first and second variations reemerge and
lead to a strongly affirmative cadence.