SSAATTBB Choir
SKU:
CA.967400
Composed by
Jacek Sykulski. Edited by
Stefan Schuck. CARUS
CONTEMPORARY. Sacred
vocal music. Full score.
16 pages. Duration 8
minutes. Carus Verlag #CV
09.674/00. Published by
Carus Verlag (CA.967400).
ISBN 9790007187484.
Language:
Latin.
With the
publication of his
hypnotic Pater noster,
Carus proudly presents
Jacek Sykulski as a new
composer in the Carus
Contemporary series.
Whilst Sykulski has
achieved worldwide
success as Director of
the Academic Choir at the
University of Poznan and
the Poznan Boys' Choir,
as a composer he has
remained a well-guarded
secret until now. In his
sacred compositions he
combines in music the
deeply Catholic-imbued
tradition of his country
with his own
compositional technique,
characterized by a
tremendous vocal
sensuousness of sound and
a conscious use of
tonality enriched by
dissonance. His Pater
noster was composed in
2009 and revised in 2015
for a performance by the
RIAS Kammerchor in
Berlin. The first section
of this three-part work
for eight-part choir
(tenors and sopranos also
split into three) begins
with the invocation Pater
noster homophonically in
A minor. This then
introduces the Gregorian
liturgical melody of the
Our Father canonically
and aleatorically, like a
contemplative
congregational hymn. The
middle section calls out
Dein Reich komme in
increasingly insistent
rhythmic declamation,
more demanding, with
hypnotic repetitions and
intensifications. In the
last section, Sykulski
returns to the opening
harmonies, but now a
semitone lower on A flat,
followed by an
intensification at the
words sed libera nos a
malo - and delivery us
from evil once more; this
ends unresolved in a
diatonic cluster on A
flat as the paradigm of
our imperfect earthly
existence. The
eight-minute
unaccompanied composition
is extremely singable,
impressive, and not
difficult to master. The
piece is suitable for use
in the liturgy, as well
as in concerts and
competitions.
