Cantate Domino

Vocal score

Forces or Category: SATB (with divisions) & organ

Cantate Domino

Vocal score

Description

for SATB (with divisions) and organ
This setting of Psalm 95, written for Truro Cathedral Choir, was shortlisted for a BASCA British Composer Award 2013. Evocative and subtle in its use of colour and texture, the piece has independent organ passages, an intense musical climax, and a last verse akin to a gentle chorale.

Programme Notes:

The boys of Truro Cathedral Choir have always produced a distinctive sound - clean, clear, gentle yet strong and beautifully sustained, and I wanted to show them off in Cantate Domino, written in 2013 to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the cathedral's foundation. So the opening is dominated by the trebles, high, bright and quietly exultant (the first tutti isn't until page five). There is a very colourful organ part, full of bell-sounds, also a celebration - of the cathedral's famous Father Willis instrument. I cut some verses from Psalm 96 (95 in the Vulgate) so as not to make this mosaic of variegated material too bitty. Cantate Domino obeys one of my favourite structural imperatives, that something different happens in the third quarter of the piece; here there is a change of key and a hushed chorale followed by a solo treble recitative.
Copyright Gabriel Jackson 2016

Cantate Domino

Vocal score

Gabriel Jackson

New Horizons

Composer Information

Gabriel Jackson (b.1962)

One of Britain's foremost composers, after three years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, Gabriel Jackson went on to study composition with Richard Blackford and John Lambert at the Royal College of Music. Particularly acclaimed for his choral works, his liturgical pieces are in the repertoires of most of Britain's cathedral and collegiate choirs and he is a frequent collaborator with the leading professional groups of the world. From 2010-2013 he was Associate Composer to the BBC Singers. In 2014 his hour-long The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, commissioned for the 750th anniversary of Merton College, Oxford, was premiered in its chapel. May 2015 saw the premiere at the Latvian National Opera of Spring Rounds for soprano, choir and orchestra, commissioned by the Riga-based youth choir Kamer for their 25th anniversary. He was recently commissioned by The Marian Consort to write Stabat Mater to mark their 10th anniversary.

Gabriel Jackson's website

Cantate Domino

Vocal score

Gabriel Jackson

New Horizons

Reviews and Awards

"Admittedly, Jackson's setting scintillates in a mostly familiar rather than a new way, but that is all to the good, since there are some lovely turns of phrase and effective changes of mood, all of which supposrt the text fluently. This neatly organised anthem works towards a colourful climax and a gentle chorale-like finish." - Jeremy Summerly, Choir & Organ, November 2014