For baroque ensemble and countertenor.
Commissioned by the International Festival of Sacred Music of Bogotá (2025)
The Gloria, a quintessential musical text in the history of sacred music, offers the composer the opportunity to explore a variety of characters and textures within a form consecrated by centuries of compositional practice. This work is written for baroque ensemble, an instrumentation that allows composing with a transparent and austere texture, making the harmony and counterpoint clearer.
Latin is a vocal language. The clarity of its vowels allows for melodic clarity, while its consonants clarify articulation and give timbral richness to the voice.
As is traditional in liturgical music, the importance of certain parts of the text is emphasized, whether with higher notes, longer melismas, or with harmonic and orchestral intensity. For example, the first movement has its melodic climax in the text “et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis” (and on earth peace to men of good will). The third expresses humility with descending melodies and slower tempos in “miserere nobis” (have mercy on us) and “suscipe deprecationem nostram” (hear our prayer), and the fourth celebrates the exaltation of the human and the divine, particularly in the passage “tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe” (you alone the most high, Jesus Christ).
Structure
The first movement, “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” is solemn during the doxology and more lyrical in the exaltation of human peace.
The second, “Laudamus te,” with a more delicate orchestration, is melodic with the simplicity of a folk song.
The third, “Domine Fili Unigenite,” presents a sharp contrast between its rhythmic and asymmetric sections and slower sections that express the humility of forgiveness.
The final movement, “Quoniam tu solus sanctus,” returns to the solemnity of the first movement and adds a more celebratory character, with a more reflective middle section. The doxology is presented again at the end of the movement before the “Amen.”