(Each week we look at a piece of useful repertoire from the ChoralNet Community Composition Showcase. A variety of voicings and levels of difficulty will be presented. Enjoy!)
Prothalamia: In Celebration of Marriage for All by Charles Norman Mason and Dorothy Hindman TTBB and Organ (click for PDF and for audio from each movement Kyrie GloriaCredo Sanctus Agnus Dei)
Level: College or higher
Uses: General Concert Use, Marriage Ceremony
Program Themes: Love, Marriage, Equal Rights
This Piece Would Program Well With: David and Jonathan by Stefan Weisman available from the composer.
Do you have a special event, theme or idea that you want set to music? Consider commissioning a composer to realize your purpose. Each work in the Composition Showcase has a link to message the composer. A list of composers is available in the Composers of Choral Music Community.
Prothalamia, which means songs in celebration of marriage, was commissioned by the Empire City Men’s Choir of New York City. Though the movements are titled after the movements of the Catholic Mass, the text is far from traditional. Sources include a poem by Gertrude Stein (1910), a paraphrase of John Boswell’s Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe and a poem of dedication from Anne Bradstreat (1678) to her husband. The text in the final movement is a description of the marriage of two men in early Rome.
Musically the Credo is the strongest movement and could stand alone excerpted from the larger work. Contrasts in texture, juxtaposed vowel ostinatos and melodic writing add to the strength of the piece.
(Original publication: December 9, 2012)
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