Composer: David AvshalomovDetailsFormat: Mixed Choir - 4 voicesVoicing: SATBIncidental Divisi: S, A, T, BAccompaniment: unaccompaniedNotation: standardPerformance Length: 5:00 Study Scores & Audio FilesStudy Score & Audio Order Printed ScoresPublisher: Raven Music Order site / Alternate source of score: www.davidavshalomov.com Texts & TranslationsLanguage(s): EnglishText Source: Old Testament, Canticle 14 of ManassehText: O Lord and Ruler of the hosts of heaven, You made the heavens and the earth, With all their vast array. All things quake with fear at your presence, They tremble because of your power. But your merciful promise is beyond all measure, It surpasses all that our minds can fathom. And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart, And make my appeal, sure of your gracious goodness. I know my wickedness only too well. Unworthy as I am, you will save me, In accordance with your great mercy And I will praise you without ceasing all the days of my life. Amen Programming AidsDescriptive Terms: contritionMenassehmercypraisesinAllow Excerpts: Composition is a single movementComposer’s Notes: This work expresses a deeply penitent prayer of the truly wicked Hebrew King Menasseh, who had much to repent, including the sacrificing of his own son to an alien God. The text was suggested by conductor James Person, who helped me to condense the long prayer to its essence. I have set it in my “Old Testament Anglican” style—like my usual tonal modern lyrical vein but more open, with somewhat more traditional harmonies and distinct, long melodic arches. Though sometimes richly voiced and contrapuntal, it reflects my recent efforts to make my vocal music ever more direct, clear, simple, and emotionally honest. And it is totally rooted in the words and their meaning and feeling. The work proceeds organically through a linked series of tone-painting sections, moving from hushed awe to quaking fear to pleading for mercy and back to dumbfounded awe, settling on a Mystery chord on “all that the mind can fathom.” Then it gently turns to nakedly beseech the Creator for mercy and confess wickedness, and finally rolls into a rising peroration, adding voice upon voice in imitation, demonstrating with winding repetitions how Menasseh would praise his Lord “without ceasing,” building to a high, ecstatic peak, then sinking softly to a beatific, lushly-harmonized two-fold Amen. This work was commissioned in 2006 for the Anglican Chorale of Southern California, by my friend and choir mate Richard Beatty. They sang the premiere wonderfully that fall. Additional InformationDate of Completion: October, 2006Date of First Performance: Sunday, November 5, 2006Premier Performance Data: Anglican Choral of Southern California, (James Person, cond), Grace Episcopal Church, Glendora, CAAdditional Performances: Cantori Domino (Maurita Phillips-Thornburgh, cond), Santa Monica, CA