Commissioned by: the Yale Norfolk Festival Choral Workshop, Simon Carrington, director

Durata: ca. 2:30

Premiere:  08/19/2017 at the Yale Norfolk Festival Choral Workshop, Trevor Kroeger, cond.

Program notes:

Ave Maria No. 13 – Regina Cæli (After Guerrero) is the thirteenth Ave Maria in my 50-year Ave Maria Project (composing a new Ave annually from 2005-2054). This one’s title emphasizes Mary as being the Queen of Heaven.

Here I drew from the savor and spirit of an Ave Maria composed by the Spanish composer, Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) weaving in various features of his writing as well as features of my own. I begin the composition with an inversion of Guerrero’s opening motive, and set the specific Latin text that the Renaissance Spanish composer set, which is slightly different from the standard Ave Maria in Latin. This work was written for its first performance to follow a performance of Guerrero’s Ave Maria but it can also be performed alone.