Composer:
Publisher:
Oxford University Press (ISBN 978-0-19-338837-6)
Year Written:
2012
Year Published:
2013
Commissioned/Written for
From score: "Commissioned by the BBC Radio 3 for the BBC Singers"
Text:
Length:
00:08:00
Scoring: Voices:
SSAATTBB
Difficulty:
3
Related Media:
From score: "First performed by the BBC Singers, directed by David Hill, at St Paul’s, Knightsbridge, London on 5 April 2012"
Though OUP lists the piece as SATB, there are frequent divisi passages in all voice parts for SSAATTBB.
The text is taken from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, verses 1-3 (Aleph, Beth, & Gimel), for Maunday Thursday:
Text:
Here begins the Lamentations of Jeremiah.
(from Revised Standard Version)
1:1 ALEPH. How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the cities has become a vassal.
1:2 BETH. She weeps bitterly in the night, tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.
1:3 GHIMEL. Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.