Populus Sion after Heinrich Isaac (2021) for SATB choir, unaccompanied

Commissioned by: First Presbyterian Church of Wooster, Ohio, Eric Gastier, Director of Music.

Durata: ca. 6 minutes

Premiere:  Ensemble Invocatio, Daniel Knaggs, cond., 03/26/2022 and 03/27/2022 in Bydgoszcz and Warsaw, Poland

Watch below Populus Sion after Isaac sung by Ensemble Invocatio, Daniel Knaggs, cond.

Program Notes:

Populus Sion (after Isaac) was written in response to a motet composed by the Nertherlandish Renaissance composer Heinrich Isaac (ca.1450-1517). Here I incorporated a few features from Isaac’s Advent motet Populus Sion which in turn incorporated features from the liturgical chant of the same text.

The text itself determined the mood, structure, and overall journey of my response in this new motet. The idea was to dialogue with Isaac’s motet in such a way that would capture my sense of the text’s expectant joy. As the piece unfolds, the Latin gives way to the English translation in order to make more immediate and intelligible these hope-filled words.

Translation:

People of Sion,
behold the Lord shall come
to save the nations:
and the Lord shall make
the glory of his voice to be heard in the joy of your heart.
Glory to the Father and to the Son And to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now,
And ever shall be, world without end. Amen.