Prayer and Supplication (Op.5)

1975, 7 minutes

A setting of (i) the Latin hymn Ave maris stella and (ii) Psalm 102 v 1-12 (Revised Standard Version 1975) for SSAATTB a capella choir

These two a capella choral pieces were commissioned in 1979 by Adrian Pitts, conductor of Bristol University Chamber Choir, who gave the first performance there in the Wills Memorial Building in that year.

Prayer and Supplication is dedicated to the composer Elizabeth Poston who attended a performance at the Royston Arts Festival in May 1985. She was accompanied by the Master of the Queen's Music, Malcolm Williamson.

The two religious pieces are seemingly disparate in style and content, but both borrow from monastic plainchant, and both end with a similar cadential Amen. In the second piece, this Amen is suitably extended to form a more substantial ending.

The first piece is for SSAATTB chorus, and is a Latin setting of the hymn, Ave maris stella (Hail, star of the sea).

Despite dividing the choir into seven parts, at no point does the choir sing in seven parts: instead the piece explores the richness of occasional 4-part female, or 3-part male timbres.

Parallel fifths are prominent to create a feeling of antiquity, yet the fifths are frequently superimposed to maintain contemporary expression. The Amen ends peacefully on a bare D fifth, ambiguously major/minor.

The second piece is an English setting of verses 1-12 of Psalm 102 (Hear my prayer, O Lord let my cry come to thee!) from the Revised Standard Version.

The first 98 bars are monodic, in pseudo plainchant — each voice part entering in turn from the bass part upwards — and all in unison.

The elegiac lines may be unharmonised but they paint the words both melodically and rhythmically. Gracious rests between many of the lines provide a relaxed feel and allow more focus on the words.

The final verse of the psalm, the setting of the Gloria and the cadential Amen are harmonised at last, and revert to the style of the Ave Maris Stella. The piece concludes this time in a more stable, perhaps unexpected, B flat major.

Listen

You can listen to Prayer and Supplication on scoreexchange.com.

Performances

  1. 12 February 1979 at the Wills Memorial Building, Bristol, with the Bristol University chamber choir and Adrian Pitts (conductor)
  2. 18 May 1985 at St John the Baptist church, Royston, Hertfordshire, with Chanticleer chamber choir. Performed at Royston Arts Festival