Vocalise: Benediction

MIDI recording

Perusal scores are downloadable and viewable but not printable.

Instrumentation: Unaccompanied SATB chorus

Duration: ca. 4 minutes

Year composed: 2024

Place composed: Troon, Scotland

Program Notes:
In October 2024 I attended a piano recital given by Steven Osborne in Cumnock, Scotland. The entire recital was fantastic, but I was particularly impressed by three of Osborne’s performances: J.S. Bach’s Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, James MacMillan’s Lumen Christi, and the encore, an improvisation on a theme of Keith Jarrett’s from his 1992 Vienna concert (which strongly reminded me of the unconventional opening of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4). The three pieces were simple, but beautiful in their simplicity. I fell asleep that night thinking, “I would like to compose a choral piece that has that kind of simple beauty.” Two hours later, I woke up with an idea and composed the first phrase of the piece in my head, then got up and wrote it down before attempting, rather unsuccessfully, to go back to sleep. I worked on it the next morning (well, really later that same morning) and finished the first draft of the piece the following day.

A vocalise is a vocal piece without words (this piece is sung only on the vowels “oo” and “ah”). A benediction (literally meaning “good word” in Latin) is a blessing.

My hope and prayer is that Vocalise: Benediction would be a blessing of simple beauty to all who sing it and all who hear it.