disturbingly beautiful - aws

40 CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 53 Number 5

Carefully composed, fractured by breathing, screaming and silence, this work is agonizingly beautiful. The cello's heartrending, gentle mourning has a shattered beauty, as if it were whispering to an absent friend about this ultimate abandonment. Again and again the voices of the mothers lose control, incurably wounded, and the choir, a throng of musical colors and forms, is sometimes pitying, sometimes unhinged. Shalom, Salaam and Dona nobis pacem: at the end, we are left with this prayer for peace common to the three religions—mourning, questioning, troubling, and seemingly unanswered.

—Thomas Altmann1

Robert Gehrenbeck is assistant professor of music

and director of choral activities at the University of

Wisconsin – Whitewater, and artistic director of the

Wisconsin Chamber Choir. His dissertation on the

choral music of Giles Swayne received ACDA’s

Julius Herford Prize in 2007 <[email protected]>.

DISTUR B IN GLY B EAUTIFULTO N A L I T Y A N D A L LU S I O N IN G I L ES S WAY N E ’ S D O LO R O S A

R O B E R T G E H R E N B E C K

CHORAL JOURNAL Volume 53 Number 5 41


Thomas Altmann’s concer t review describes his reaction to Do-lorosa, a new choral work by British composer Giles Swayne, scored for solo cello, four vocal soloists, and chorus. Commissioned by the Middle German Radio Choir and premiered in Leipzig on Novem-ber 3, 2011, this piece is Swayne’s reworking of his 2004 Stabat Mater.2 A major work lasting forty-three minutes, Swayne’s Dolorosa takes its place alongside numerous other composers’ settings of the medieval Latin sequence, Stabat mater dolorosa, yet Swayne’s version stands out because of his inclusion of prayers in Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic, which he intersperses between stanzas of the original Latin poem. The unique nature of the Swayne’s libretto, the music’s accessible yet unusual harmonic language, and the diversity of its stylistic references unite to cre-ate a musical experience that is both moving and thought-provoking, alternately comforting and terrifying—“disturbingly beautiful.”

LIFE AND WORKSLIFE AND WORKSGiles Swayne was born in 1946 in

Hertfordshire, England; attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Royal Acad-emy of Music; and studied with Olivier Messiaen in Paris. He is currently Com-poser in Residence at Clare College, Cambridge, and his extensive catalog of works includes all the major genres. Fre-quently hailed as one of Britain’s leading choral composers,3 Swayne neverthe-less considers himself “an outsider to the English choral tradition.”4 Although his musical education and early career were fairly typical, during the late 1970s Swayne became disillusioned by the gulf between contemporary composers and their audience. As he wrote at the time,

“the realization that I admired the work of David Bowie much more than that of Boulez or Stockhausen set me thinking and worrying.”5 A chance encounter with traditional African music on a library LP opened up new vistas, and Swayne subsequently worked as an eth-nomusicologist among the Jola people of Senegal, and later lived in Ghana for six years.6 Three of Swayne’s best known choral works were the direct result of his engagement with African music: Cry, a monumental creation story scored for twenty-eight amplifi ed voices singing a mostly phonetic text, commissioned by the BBC Singers in 1979; Magnifi cat I, a shorter, unaccompanied setting of the Latin canticle from 1982 that opens with a quotation of a Jola plowing song; and Missa Tiburtina of 1985, an unconven-tional setting of the Latin Mass Ordinary suffused with African and popular ele-

ments.7 Signifi cantly, Swayne com-posed the latter work in response to a severe famine that had engulfed the horn of Africa at the time, and his engagement with wider social issues is evident in many subsequent works, including Dolorosa. Swayne’s recent choral works show a wider variety of infl uences than those of his “African period” in the early 1980s, but his openness to different musical styles and his commitment to reimagining the form, content, and function of choral music have remained vital components of his aesthetic outlook to the present day.

Throughout his career, Swayne has aimed, in his own words, to create “music which speaks to the heart while challenging the mind,” and which “encapsulates a broad human experience.”8 The discus-sion that follows seeks to uncover the ways in which Swayne realizes these goals in Dolorosa. Understand-ing Swayne’s idiosyncratic approach

to harmony in this work is fundamental. He frequently contrasts familiar and unfamiliar musical elements—such as triads employed within a non-tonal framework. In addition to new harmonic combinations, Swayne’s music for Dolo-rosa embraces a wide variety of musical styles, and the score frequently shifts be-tween startlingly different textures and musical techniques. Familiar chords and allusions to historical choral styles (such as plainchant or the music of Palestrina) give listeners something to hold onto, but the unusual placement of these tra-ditional elements within this multilingual and stylistically diverse work challenges listeners to hear familiar sounds in new ways. Ultimately, Swayne’s music bridges the gap between seemingly incompat-ible musical worlds, thereby opening up new avenues for creating musical meaning.9


Giles Swayne


THE LIBRETTOTHE LIBRETTOFor the libretto of Dolorosa, Swayne

drew upon several different religious and cultural traditions. The core of the work is the medieval Roman Catholic liturgical text, Stabat mater dolorosa [A grieving mother stood].10 To this poem, Swayne added Jewish and Islamic prayers in order to create a structure that would embrace the three religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—that are associ-ated geographically with Jerusalem, the location of the event described in Stabat mater dolorosa itself: Jesus’ crucifi xion and the grief of his mother, Mary. In the

introductory note for Dolorosa, Swayne writes:

According to Christian belief, Jesus’ mother lost her son to a violent death suffered for his religious convictions. Re-reading the poem with a view to making a new setting, I was struck by the fact that this is still happening almost daily, a mere stone’s throw from the place where Jesus is thought to have been crucifi ed. Men, women, and children are still dying violent deaths in Palestine and Israel (and in many other places in the world), and their

mothers still mourn and bury them. It is always the women who are left behind.11

In order to widen the frame of refer-ence for the Latin text, Swayne added excerpts in Aramaic and Hebrew from Kaddish and the Babylonian Talmud, along with the Arabic Salat al Janazah (the Islamic funeral prayer). The Jewish and Islamic prayers are arranged in a refrain-like sequence, positioned after stanzas of the Latin poem that are themselves prayers. Swayne labels these particular Latin stanzas “Chant I,” “Chant II,” etc.,

DISCOVER new levels of excellence.

EXPLORE the connections between gesture, sound and meaning.

STUDY with a remarkable faculty in a liberal arts atmosphere.

LEARN how to teach.PREPARE for a future of shaping lives.

FULL TUITION REMISSION

MASTER OF MUSIC AND MASTER OF SACRED MUSIC IN CHORAL CONDUCTING

AUDITION DATES: Monday, January 28, 2013 and Monday, February 25, 2013

ERIC NELSON, Director of Choral Studies

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:Director of Graduate Studies, Department of MusicEmory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322 404.727.6445 www.music.emory.edu

Conducting Music.Shaping Lives.


to distinguish them from the narrative portions of the poem. This results in a three-part structure that is repeated throughout the work. Each three-part segment begins with one or more nar-rative stanzas in Latin, followed by a Latin prayer or “chant,” and concludes with one of the added prayers. The fi rst segment of the libretto is reproduced below.12

STANZA I

Stabat mater dolorosa iuxta crucem lacrimosa dum pendebat fi lius;13

[A grieving mother stoodweeping by the crosswhile her son was hanging.]

CHANT I

Sancta mater, illud agas, crucifi xi fi ge plagas cordi meo valide.14

[Holy mother, may you plantyour crucifi ed son’s woundsfi rmly in my heart.]

MUSLIM PRAISE OF GOD

Alahu akbar. Bismillähir rahmäni rahim, al-hamdu lillähi rabbil-âlamin, arrahmänir rahim, Mäliki yawmid-din….15

[God is greater.In the name of God, the most gracious and merciful, all praise belongs to God,Lord of the universe,the most gracious and merciful,Master of the Day of Judgment…. ]

This ordering—narrative stanza(s); Latin prayer; added prayer—is repeated six times over the course of the entire work. For the added prayers, Swayne alternates between Islamic and Jewish sources and labels them as follows:

MUSLIM PRAISE OF GOD

JEWISH PRAISE OF GOD

MUSLIM BLESSING OF THE DEAD

JEWISH BLESSING OF THE DEAD

PRAYER FOR RECONCILIATION [a combination of Muslim and Jewish prayers]

PRAYER FOR PEACE [in all four languages, with Latin represented by Dona nobis pacem]16

Taken together, Swayne’s arrangement of these different texts creates, in his words, “a communal ritual of grief.”17

A MODAL APPROACHA MODAL APPROACH TO HARMONY TO HARMONY

On the subject of Dolorosa’s har-monic language, Swayne writes,

It seemed right to me that a piece about such crucial human issues should use a simple musical language. The [Latin] poem is cast in eight-syllable lines, and I have used a series of eight-note modes derived from permutations of four notes selected from each hexachord (half-octave). So each eight-syllable line of the Latin poem has its own eight-note mode; this creates an audibly defi ned melodic and harmonic fi eld, and a sense of harmonic change as the music moves from one mode to another. 18

Although Swayne’s description may seem somewhat complex, his modal approach to harmony is fairly straight-forward. First of all, Swayne uses the word “mode” to denote simply a distinct collection of pitches, excluding other pitches. In Cry, Magnifi cat I and other early works, Swayne frequently uses the pentatonic scale as a mode—only fi ve pitches are in play, while the music avoids using the remaining seven chro-matic possibilities.19 The best-known example of an eight-note mode is the octatonic scale, formed by alternating half- and whole-steps. Both Stravinsky and Swayne’s teacher Messiaen fre-quently used octatonic scales in their music. However, in the entire course of Dolorosa, Swayne uses an octatonic scale only once, for the setting of just one line of text. The other eight-note modes used by Swayne feature different combinations of intervals.

What unites all the modes used in Dolorosa is the presence of tritones within them. This interval divides the chromatic octave into “half-octaves” (hexachords).20 To construct his eight-note modes, Swayne chose four pitches from each half-octave, always including


Scholarly performing editionsand recordings of lost

eighteenth century liturgical music.

(224) 649-6000www.GalantMusic.com


the pitches of the tritone that had de-fi ned the boundaries of the half-octaves in the fi rst place. For example, in the opening choral setting of the line, Stabat mater dolorosa, Swayne uses the follow-ing pitches: C, C♯, D, D♯ (drawn from one half-octave) plus F♯, G, G♯, and A (from the other half-octave), with C and F♯ being the defi ning tritone, or “modal keynotes.”21 Each line of the Latin text receives a new mode, but the same two modal keynotes are preserved throughout each stanza of the poem. In this way, Swayne creates a sense of harmonic movement from line to line, while preserving an overall “modal key area” for longer segments of the work. Altogether, Dolorosa gradually moves through twelve different modal key areas, one for each pitch of the chro-matic scale.22 Swayne foregrounds these modal keynotes in various ways, as will be seen below.

STANZA ISTANZA I Although his scheme of preselecting

the pitches for his eight-note modes is rather abstract, Swayne fashions the music based on these mode in ways that evoke tonality. As shown in Figure 1, all of the chords used in the opening choral gesture of Dolorosa are either triads or other sonorities commonly encountered in tonal music.23 In particu-lar, the fi rst half of this phrase has clear tonal implications, as can be seen from the imaginary progression of descending chord roots shown in the example. (This bass line does not appear in Swayne’s music itself; its only purpose is explana-tory.) As in tonal music, root motion between the fi rst fi ve chords of the phrase proceeds by descending thirds and fi fths. The D-major triad that is the goal of this harmonic motion also coin-cides with the crucial word “dolorosa,” meaning “grieving.”

In fact, Swayne’s opening phrase bears a striking resemblance to a much older setting of the same text, that of

Peter’s Way Tours2013/2014 Festi vals

To request a sample program: Email: [email protected] call: 800-225-7662, x111

• Benedi c t Parade• Benedi ct ParadeRome and

Vatican Cit yMay 3 - 5, 2013 • June 6 - 8, 2014

• “Eur ope and i t s Songs”Inter nat ional Folksong Choir Fe st iva l

Barce lona, SpainSept. 18 - 21, 2013 • Sept. 17 - 20, 2014

• Inter nat ional Music Choir Fest i val

Rome and Vati can Ci tyJuly 19 - 22, 2013 • July 18 - 21, 2014

• Fest i va l Inter naz iona le di Musica e Arte Sacra

By invitation onlyOrchestra in residence,Vienna Philharmonic

Rome and Vati can Ci tyOctober Annually

• Festival Internaz ionale di Arte per Giovanni Music isti

Rome and Vati can Ci tyBy invitation/audition only

November AnnuallyContact us for details

A tradition of promoting and drawingthe most well attended concert venues!


Palestrina, which is shown in Figure 2. In both versions, the top voice rises, then falls in an arc of stepwise motion. There is a strong sense of symmetry in both phrases, and both composers lead their music to a highpoint on the fi rst syllable of the word dolorosa [grieving]. Palestrina emphasizes this word by giving it a high, closed position triad in the midst of a more open choral texture. In Swayne’s case, the D-major chord on dolorosa stands out as the only root-position major triad of the phrase, in addition to being the goal of the harmonic progres-sion just mentioned. Much of Swayne’s choral writing in the remainder of this work alludes to the homophonic style of Palestrina’s Stabat mater. But there are also other processes at work in Swayne’s setting of the poem’s fi rst line. After the D-major chord has been reached on the fi rst syllable of dolorosa, the remainder of the phrase gradually descends, arriving, rather inconclusively, on the sonority D♭–E♭–G. This chord could be interpreted as an incomplete V4

2 of A♭, but the implied tonic chord never materializes. Unlike the fi rst half of the phrase, its second half lacks clear functional relationships between chords. Taken as a whole, the opening choral statement of Swayne’s Dolorosa embodies a different sort of progression:

a progression from one harmonic style to another. Within these four measures Swayne moves from a style strongly reminiscent of tonal music to a non-tonal style that sounds unsettling, if not disturbing. Similar contrasts between the music’s familiar, tonal aspects and its unfamiliar, non-total features will recur throughout the remainder of the work. These contrasts are one of the primary ways Swayne creates musical meaning in this piece. Often, as here, he uses different kinds of harmony to depict specifi c words of the text. In this case, the remainder of the word dolo-rosa [grieving] occupies the inconclusive, pathetic sounding second half of this opening phrase. Swayne reinforces this doleful mood by appending a somber echo of this same half-phrase an octave lower in alto, tenor, and bass voices in the measures following bar 34.

The gestures sung by the choir in the remainder of Stanza I are similar to those used for the stanza’s open-ing line. For the second line of text, iuxta crucem lacrimosa [weeping by the cross], Swayne employs a homophonic, gradually rising phrase, ratcheting up the musical intensity. In contrast, the music of the stanza’s fi nal line, dum pendebat fi lius [while her son was hanging], is more

fractured, and gradually descends.24

Taken together, these two choral state-ments recreate both the arch shape and the contrasting moods of the opening choral statement, lending an aura of formal balance to the stanza as a whole. Tonally, Stanza I concludes—as it began—clearly in the key of C minor, reinforcing one of its modal keynotes (see Figure 7, below). In between these two anchor points, however, the music often makes reference to its other modal keynote of F♯, specifi cally, to the key of F♯ minor.25

LATIN CHANTLATIN CHANTThe remainder of “Stanza I,” together

with “Chant I” and “Muslim Praise of God,” make up the fi rst modal key area of Dolorosa. Each of the six different modes used in this segment shares the defi ning tritone, C–F ♯. Swayne’s musical realizations of these modes include a wide variety of harmonic procedures, textures, and styles. Follow-ing the completion of Stanza I, Chant I presents a monophonic choral texture strongly reminiscent of Gregorian chant, as seen in Figure 3.26 In fact, the open-ing gesture of Swayne’s chant recalls a turn of phrase in the well-known


CHOIR ROBES$3595

& UPEXPERT

TAILORING

www.rcgown.com

Finest fabrics including permanentpress and wash & wear. Superior

quality. Free color catalog and fabric swatches on request.

GUARANTEED SATISFACTIONCall Toll Free: 1-800-826-8612

P.O. Box 8988-CJ Jacksonville, FL 32211


thirteenth-century antiphon, Ave Maria, gratia plena, as shown in Figure 4. This motive—a rising fi fth followed by a semitone—recurs literally in mm. 57 and 59 of Swayne’s score, and appears several more times within Chant I in modifi ed forms.27 However, the sound of Swayne’s melody is vastly different from actual plainchant. Because three lines of text—and therefore, three different eight-note modes—follow in close succession, there is no time for a clear tonal center to emerge. Unlike Stanza I, which begins and ends in C minor, Swayne’s plainchant-like setting of the prayer, Sancta mater,… [Holy mother,…] cycles through its three modes so quickly that it creates an almost completely atonal impression.

Once again, Swayne is combining what is familiar—a chant-like texture and melodic contour—with the unfamiliar—a melody that is largely atonal. While listeners will easily recognize Swayne’s allusion to plainchant, they may fi nd the actual sound of the melody per-plexing—another example of “beauty disturbed.”

MUSLIM PRAISE OF GODMUSLIM PRAISE OF GODThe next segment of the piece,

“Muslim Praise of God,” seems to come crashing in upon the music of Chant I. The contrasts between Swayne’s setting of this Arabic passage and his music for the preceding Latin verses could not be more stark. As can be seen at the

end of Figure 3, the music for the fortissimo exclama-tion Alahu akbar [God is greater] is dominated by major and minor seconds and jagged rhythms. In fact, the entire “Muslim Praise” segment is utterly devoid of triads. The short note

values and rhythmical irregularity of the solo lines evoke the fl orid melodies and improvisatory qualities of Arabic music. Rather than depicting the “communal ritual” Swayne cited as his goal, the fi rst appearance of a non-Western text in Dolorosa seems to emphasize the dif-ferences between Christian and Islamic sacred music traditions.

On several other levels, however, Swayne establishes links between the “Muslim Praise” segment and its sur-roundings. First, not only are the modal key notes of C and F♯ retained in this seg-ment, as was noted above, but “Muslim Praise” uses exactly the same eight-note mode as was used for the end of Chant I. This continuity of pitch fi eld is audible, even though the pitches are used differ-ently. Moreover, the end of the “Muslim Praise” segment establishes a clear mo-tivic link back to Chant I. The monophon-ic, chant-like gesture shown in Figure 5 turns out to be based on the retrograde of Chant I’s opening motive, repeated in a falling sequence. The details of the connections between these two pas-sages are ingenious. As was seen above, the opening motive of Chant I consists of the fi gure C–G–A♭–G—a rising fi fth followed by a semitone upper-neighbor fi gure. This gesture emphasizes the rising fi fth, as in a medieval chant in the Dorian mode, which prompted the comparison to Ave Maria, gratia plena. When this same motive appears in retrograde at the end of “Muslim Praise,” Swayne removes the original fi nal (now initial) pitch, beginning instead with the upper chromatic neighbor, then proceeding to the top note of the fi fth. By doing so, he shifts the musical emphasis away from the fi fth and onto the semitone. This accords perfectly with the rest of the music of “Muslim Praise,” which has also emphasized semitones. This transformed version of the motive is then repeated three times in a falling sequence. But the sequence (and the melody as a whole) is broken off in the middle of what would



have been the third repetition of the fi g-ure from Chant I. Rather than conclud-ing with the interval of a fi fth, “Muslim Praise” concludes with a semitone. What was latent in the original presentation of the motive in Chant I—its semitone neighbor figure—has now become the motive’s salient feature. It is as if Swayne’s music has revealed a hidden connection between Christian and Is-lamic sacred music (though, of course, in this case, all the music was composed by Swayne). Due to these and other subtle relationships (including the fact that “Muslim Praise” concludes on the modal keynote of F♯), the listener ultimately perceives “Muslim Praise of God”—as well as the other Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic portions of the piece—to be

essential parts of the whole. What was unfamiliar becomes familiar.

JEWISH BLESSING JEWISH BLESSING OF THE DEADOF THE DEAD

Having examined Swayne’s treatment of the fi rst added prayer in Dolorosa, the fourth such segment will be considered next, which Swayne calls “Jewish Bless-ing of the Dead.” This movement occurs at a highly signifi cant point in the work as a whole. “Jewish Blessing” concludes the modal key area that began with the eighth stanza of the Latin poem, Vidit suum dulcem natum. In English translation, the text of the entire stanza reads, “She saw her dear child / dying and abandoned / when he breathed

his last.”28 A short cello solo follows, titled “Death of the Son.” The ensuing the vocal movements—“Chant IV” and “Jewish Blessing”— constitute the direct reactions within Swayne’s libretto to the death of Jesus. Chant IV is relatively brief, whereas “Jewish Blessing” lasts consider-ably longer.

At fi rst glance, the music for “Jewish Blessing” seems to feature a melodic device that is commonly associated with Jewish music (and Middle Eastern music in general): the augmented second. As shown in Figure 6, the motive that opens “Jewish Blessing,” hummed in octaves by the altos and basses, consists of the pitches C♯, D, F, and G♭ . C♯ is one of the two keynotes of this modal key area. Hence, the pitches written by Swayne


as F and G♭ are actually heard—at least initially—as E♯ and F♯—that is, as part of a scale based on C♯. The aug-mented second occurs between the second and third degrees of this scale, D and E♯. However, Swayne’s music also undermines this hearing. The sopranos and tenors respond to the music of the altos and basses with their own hum-ming fi gure, consisting of the pitches G–A♭–B♭–C. This fi gure begins and ends on G—the other modal keynote of this section of the piece. Although the arch shape of soprano/tenor fi gure is similar to that of the alto/bass fi gure,

its interval content is different, and it does not contain an interval that could be heard as an augmented second (that is, it does not contain a minor third). Furthermore, “Jewish Blessing” has not one, but two tonal centers: C♯ and G, the two modal keynotes. Both choral groups (alto/bass and soprano/tenor) sustain their respective keynotes (C♯ and G) while the other group sings its moving eighth-note fi gure. One group’s moving notes are thus always heard against the sustained keynote of the other group. In the case of the alto-bass fi gure, the sustained G against which it is always

heard (except for its very fi rst appear-ance) negates the impression of F as E♯, that is, as the top note of an augmented second above D, in the key of C♯. Instead, D and F are heard in relation to G, as dominant and lowered seventh of that key, respectively. Swayne’s music is thus tonally ambiguous. It is as if Swayne’s set-ting of the Jewish prayer contains a hint of Jewish or Middle Eastern music, but it avoids sounding like a cliché because of its ultimately non-tonal basis. As in many other passages throughout Dolorosa, much of the musical expressivity of this passage is created by the subtle tension between the familiar and unfamiliar musical elements it contains. In “Jew-ish Blessing,” Swayne’s music reminds listeners—perhaps subconsciously—of a style of music they know, but precisely because the connections are not obvi-ous, the music has a mysterious quality that invites further refl ection on what role this passage might play in the work as a whole.

Indeed, the position of “Jewish Blessing of the Dead” within Swayne’s libretto is particularly affecting. As was mentioned above, this movement func-tions as a response to the death of Jesus. The text Swayne used for “Jewish Blessing” is a Hebrew blessing from the Babylonian Talmud.29 This prayer was suggested to Swayne by Stefan Reif, a Professor of medieval Hebrew and Swayne's colleague at Cambridge Uni-versity.30 From Reif, Swayne learned that this blessing from the Talmud predates the Mourners’ Kaddish of current Jewish practice (which Swayne drew upon for an earlier movement of Dolorosa titled “Jewish Praise of God”). According to Reif, this particular text from the Tal-mud—or something similar to it—was likely used in Jewish burial rites as early as the second century C.E.31 As Swayne observes, this blessing “is probably simi-lar to the prayers which were recited over Christ’s body.”32 By interpolating this particular Jewish blessing into the


graduate study in choral conducting at Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale School of Music

Office of Admissions Yale Institute of Sacred Music, 409 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511tel 203.432.9753 fax 203.432.9680 · www.yale.edu/ism · [email protected]

degrees offered Master of MusicMaster of Musical ArtsDoctor of Musical ArtsArtist Diploma

with Marguerite L. Brooks, yale camerataJeffrey Douma, yale glee clubMasaaki Suzuki, yale schola cantorum

Full tuition scholarships for all admitted students. Additional merit-based awards available.

Ample podium time with choral and instrumental ensembles.


text of the Christian poem Stabat mater dolorosa at this point, Swayne draws a specifi c connection between these two religious texts, one Jewish, the other Christian. This juxtaposition expands the relevance of the Latin poem—and of Dolorosa as a whole—by presenting Jesus’ death, “suffered for his religious convictions,” as a universally human tragedy.33

VOCAL SOLOISTS VOCAL SOLOISTS AND SOLO CELLOAND SOLO CELLO

The foregoing analysis has focused exclusively on the role of the chorus within Swayne’s Dolorosa, but what of the other protagonists in the drama, the vocal soloists and the solo cello? The terms “role” and “protagonist” are apropos because, for Swayne, all three groups represent specifi c actors of the story of his libretto. The chorus repre-sents society at large; the vocal soloists are the mourning families; and the solo cello represents “a victim of any religious or political intolerance.”34 Because the soloists and the cellist have more per-sonal roles to play, their music is typically quite distinct from that of the chorus. For example, in Stanza I, in contrast to the triadic sonorities, smooth voice leading, and syllabic declamation of the choral part, the vocal soloists sing soar-ing, jagged, melismatic fi gures that leap out of the texture. It is as if the grief that the soloists have to express is so intense that it overfl ows the bounds of the rest of the piece. In this way, the soloists often “disturb” the beauty of the choral writing. Nevertheless, the solo lines are built from the same eight-note modes as the choral parts, and they frequently articulate the modal key notes of a given portion of the piece more clearly than the choir does. In spite of their often “out of control” melodies, the soloists’ music is fi rmly grounded in the work’s underlying harmonic scheme.

One of the most poignant solo

passages in the entire work occurs at the end of the last stanza of the Stabat mater poem, which appears as Dolorosa’s penultimate movement. As is shown in mm. 647-648 of Figure 10, below, im-mediately after the choir has arrived at the climatic words, Paradisi gloria [the glory of Paradise], Swayne gives the alto soloist the rubric, “desperate but proud (the mother)” as she repeats the same text. Her intensely personal music—defi ant yet fractured—is the emotional highpoint of the entire work. Further implications of this passage will be discussed below.

The cello’s music is similar to that of the vocal soloists, but even more varied. Swayne makes frequent use of harmon-ics and other extended techniques that allow the cello to sound alternately plaintive, ferocious, or disembodied.35 The cello often adds counterpoint to the surrounding vocal texture, as in Chant I (see Figure 3). But, unlike the vocal soloists, the cello part typically uses different eight-note modes from those that underlie the vocal parts (even

though both sets of modes are always based on the same modal key notes). Thus, when the cello imitates a vocal part, as it does in Chant I, the contour of its melody is familiar, but many of the actual intervals played by the cello are slightly different from the vocal ver-sion—another way in which Swayne “disturbs” the beauty of this music. Over the course of the piece as a whole, how-ever, the cello gradually becomes more consonant with the vocal parts, under-going a subtle transformation towards a more “beautiful” interaction between the vocal and instrumental layers.

NEO-TONAL NEO-TONAL RELATIONSHIPSRELATIONSHIPS

As we have seen, Swayne’s frequent allusions to tonality and his evocations of recognizable musical styles throughout Dolorosa serve to make the music acces-sible to listeners. At the same time, there is much in the score—especially the solo vocal and solo cello parts—that inten-tionally alienates. Yet there is also a third

“Serving the choral profession since 1979”

UNIVERSITYMUSIC SERVICE



path to musical expression in this work, a middle way, as it were. In addition to referencing familiar styles and proce-dures, Swayne’s music is also capable of transforming listeners’ expectations of what sounds familiar in the fi rst place. Over the course of the piece, the mu-sic teaches listeners how to hear what initially seems jarring or out of place in a new way. We have already seen this process at work within the fi rst modal key area, in which the “Muslim Blessing” segment—initially experienced as being quite foreign—was ultimately revealed to be an integral part of the whole. In a similar way, Swayne employs a charac-teristic chord progression to articulate important formal divisions throughout the work. Initially, this progression sounds unsettling or “deceptive” (to borrow the terminology of tonal music). But Swayne carefully crafts the interven-ing music of Dolorosa to reshape listen-ers’ expectations, so that when the same harmonic progression appears in the climactic, penultimate movement of the work, it sounds completely different, and takes on new meaning. Tonal and non-

tonal ways of hearing are combined in a process that can be called “neo-tonality.”

The fi rst instance of this characteristic chord progression occurs at the end of Stanza I, at the words dum pendebat fi lius [while her son was hanging], as shown in Figure 7. The importance of the key of F♯ minor in the interior of Stanza I was mentioned above. However, this line of text begins with a luminous G-major triad (m. 49) that seems to prefi gure the return to C minor at the end of the line (m. 55). Yet the following three chords imply F♯ as a tonal center, rather than C, and even the initial G-major chord can be heard as the Neapolitan of F♯ (Figure 7).36 This makes sense, because F♯ (along with C) is a modal key note. Furthermore, both dynamics and text setting increase the sense of expectation in this passage. The dynam-ics build from piano through mezzo forte–crescendo, and the fi rst two words of the text, dum pendebat, are repeated before the line is completed. The subject of the verb pendebat [hangs] does not arrive until m. 52, where fi lius [the son] is marked forte and accented. However,

the harmony on fi lius is not F♯ minor, as the preceding V6

5 chord would lead one to expect, but F minor—the chord of resolution is a half-step too low. This cadence is Swayne’s neo-tonal version of a deceptive cadence. The poignancy of this half-step slip is palpable, and the unexpected harmonic shift at this point focuses the intensity and pathos of the music on the word fi lius, that is, on the fi gure of Jesus, who is “hanging” (pende-bat) from the cross.

A cadence very similar to the one just described occurs near the end of the eighth stanza of the poem, which narrates Jesus’ death. As shown in Figure 8, a series of chords that point to F♯ as a goal—including a V4

2 chord in m. 384—lead, instead, to an F-minor chord in second inversion.37 This cadence closes the setting of the crucial line, cum emisit spiritum [when he released his spirit]. The pathetic quality of this cadence is appropriate to the depiction of Jesus’ dying breath. To reinforce this point, Swayne repeats the word spiritum to the same music, following the moaning, thirty-second-note fi gures shown in the


The University of Notre Dame

Master of Sacred Music Degree



musical example. Finally, the last occurrence of this

chord progression is found at the end of the last stanza of the Stabat mater poem, set to the words Fac ut animae donetur / Paradisi gloria [May my soul receive / the glory of paradise]. This passage contains two examples of the cadence, although the fi rst one is somewhat disguised. To

understand how the harmony of this stanza works, it is necessary to start from the end of the previous stanza, on the word gratia in m. 629. Here, a chord that includes an entire whole-tone scale is built on the basses’ high E, with the cello doubling this E an octave higher. Although technically non-tonal, this chord functions like a V7 chord (the

root, third, and seventh are present; only the fi fth—B—is lacking). As shown in Figure 9, this “neo-tonal” chord resolves “correctly” to the A-major chord of the next choral entrance in m. 634.38 Nine measures later, a very similar whole-tone chord on E appears at the end of the word donetur, as shown in Figure 10 (m. 643). This chord, too, has the potential to function as V7 of A, just as its predecessor did—the earlier progression leads the listener to expect this. However, the cli-max of the following passage occurs on A♭ minor instead. Notwithstanding the intervening B♭6 chord on the downbeat of m. 644, which functions as an anacru-sis, the sustained A♭ minor 64 chord is the registral high point of the entire stanza, yet, once again, this chord is a half-step lower than the harmony that “should” have occurred. The effect of this passage is at once defi ant and unsettling.

Almost immediately thereafter, the actual cadence arrives in mm. 646–647, on the word gloria. As in the previous occurrences of this progression, a domi-nant seventh chord (m. 646), this time with a root of E♭, implies a resolution on A♭ (which would have recalled the climactic A♭ chord from m. 644), but instead the harmony “resolves” to G minor—a half-step too low, yet again. As with the setting of cum emisit spiritum discussed above, Swayne repeats the word gloria to the identical cadence a few measures later (not shown in the example).

But why would Swayne use such a “deceptive,” even “pathetic” sounding cadence to set the very fi nal word of the Stabat mater dolorosa poem, the word gloria? The answer lies in how the intervening music has reshaped listen-ers’ expectations about how these two chords are related. Although this same harmonic progression recurs at several important structural points in Dolorosa, it is heard a bit differently each time. By the time this progression recurs at the end



of the work’s penultimate movement, it sounds normal. What was unfamiliar has now become familiar.39 But Swayne’s

new “normal” (rather than “deceptive”) cadential formula is vastly different in its emotional effect than a traditional

V– I cadence would have been. That is the point: the triumphant predictability of a perfect authentic cadence at this moment would have been out of place, given the harmonic ambiguity of the rest of the piece. Swayne’s careful crafting, pacing, and transformations of cadential gestures over the course of Dolorosaengender new nuances of harmonic infl ection, allowing him to create musical meaning in new ways. His music causes listeners to refl ect on the meaning of these particular words in the context of the piece as a whole. From a theo-logical standpoint, the parallels between Swayne’s setting of the three lines Dum pendebat fi lius, Cum emisit spiritum, and Paradisi gloria establish a link between Jesus’ suffering and death and his salva-tion. Swayne’s music tempers “the glory of paradise” with the sorrows of the mother and the son.

PRAYER FOR PEACEPRAYER FOR PEACEFollowing this passage, Swayne adds

one fi nal movement, which he calls “Prayer for Peace.” For the fi rst time in Dolorosa, all four languages are heard simultaneously. Swayne writes, “The fi nal motet, which incorporates words from the Agnus Dei of the Mass, unites all three religious cultures in a prayer for peace in Latin, Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic—the last of which, of course, was the language spoken by Jesus him-self.”40 Swayne chooses phrases from each language as follows:

Dona nobis pacem (Latin): “Grant us peace.”

Wa salamu aleikum (Arabic): “And peace be upon you.”

Ve shalom aleinu (Hebrew): “And peace be upon you.”

Yehe shelama (Aramaic): “Let there be peace.”

Dr. Sébastien Vallée Prof. Donald Brinegar


As shown in Figure 11, Swayne as-signs musical motives to each phrase that recall his settings of the same

language from earlier in the work. For example, the music of Dona nobis pacem is related to that of earlier “chant” por-

tions.41 More importantly, the musical texture of this fi nal movement empha-sizes convergence. The Latin-texted



solo voices enter canonically, followed by the choir, whose Arabic and Hebrew phrases are also linked by canon.42

chordal ostinato whose rising contour sounds more optimistic. This gesture is repeated eleven times throughout the

The mood of this music is pensive, yet open ended. The Aramaic phrase, Yehe shelama, receives special treatment as a


course of the movement, underscoring the urgency of its plea for peace.

Toward the end of the movement, another ostinato appears, sung by the soloists to the words Dona nobis pacem.

As can be seen in Figure 12, the bass line of this ostinato alternates between D and G, reinforcing the sense of G as the tonal center of the movement. However, F♯, the leading tone of G, is

completely absent from the pitch fi eld at this point. This creates the impression of an archaic, pre-tonal kind of music, reminiscent of a motet by Josquin. The serene harmonic world of Dolorosa’s


fi nal movement contrasts sharply with the harmonic tension that has charac-terized the piece up to this point.

Several bars before the end of the movement, this second ostinato sud-denly changes course, arriving on a G dominant seventh chord at the word pacem, [peace] with B♮ as its top note (see m. 713 of Figure 12). Because the top voice of the ostinato gesture had previously alternated between A and Bb (the fi gure A–B♭–A is repeated ten times), this sudden appearance of B♮ sounds like a Picardy third in the key of G—a ray of hope, perhaps, to express the word “peace.” Indeed, the choral so-pranos maintain this luminous-sounding B until the end of the vocal portion of the work. But, just two measures after the “Picardy B” had been attained, the solo soprano voice adds dissonance. Her soaring melody emphasizes A and B♭, rather than B. And, one by one, as the choral parts divide, the remain-ing pitches of the eight-note mode enter, absorbing the sound of the G7 chord into the surrounding texture. The resulting cluster chord concludes the vocal portion of the piece. The last pitch to enter is A♯ (=B♭), intoned by the second sopranos a half step below the B♮ that the fi rst sopranos continue to sustain. In traditional tonal terms, then, the confl ict between B and B♭—and, therefore, the confl ict between a “Picar-dy” ending in G major versus a “modal” ending in G minor—remain unresolved. At the conclusion of Dolorosa, Swayne seems to allow competing interpreta-tions of the music to coexist within a single sonority.

The brief cello postlude that fol-lows is equally ambiguous. As shown in Figure 13, the cello’s gradually rising contour, widely spaced double stops, and glissandi sound like a series of questions. The eerie harmonics of the fi nal six measures sound utterly forlorn, in keeping with the cello’s personifi ca-tion of a “victim of religious or political


intolerance.” This is ultimately what the entire piece is about, whether one approaches it from a religious, devo-tional perspective, or a contemporary, political one. Yet the cello also fulfi lls an important structural role at the end of Dolorosa. The prominence of the pitch C in this passage recalls the very begin-ning of the work, in which both cello and choir proudly state C as the initial tonal center. In a rare instance of literal repetition, the plaintive grace-note fi gure in mm. 725–726 (Figure 12) is an exact recurrence of the same gesture from the cello’s opening prologue, creating a huge arc spanning the entire work. Only one detail is different between these two passages, but it is crucial: the cello’s very last note. Five octaves above the low pizzicato C, barely audible, there is one more B♮—the modal keynote, but, more importantly, an echo of the B♮ that appeared atop the solo quartet’s fi nal chord, discussed above. Does this cello note extend the frail mood of hope established by the solo quartet’s Picardy third? Or does the cello’s fi nal B, heard as a dissonance against the low C, represent ultimate despair? It is up to Swayne’s listeners to decide, and to interpret the music accordingly.

Much of the communicative power of Swayne’s music resides in this ten-

sion between competing interpreta-tions of its features. The score’s familiar elements—its allusions to tonality and to historical vocal styles—allow Dolo-rosa to create a deep emotional impact on listeners. Yet the music’s unfamiliar aspects—its disturbing qualities—en-gage our intellect (and our emotions) in unexpected ways. From the outset, Swayne’s multilingual libretto for Dolo-rosa confronts the tensions within our multicultural society head on, and his music does not shy away from empha-sizing the incongruities between the different backgrounds of the texts he includes. But, as we have seen, Swayne also uncovers hidden connections be-tween these texts and the traditions they represent, thereby challenging us to experience the themes of Dolorosa’s libretto in new ways. Narrowly speaking, the work tells the story of the suffering and grief of Jesus and Mary from a Chris-tian standpoint, but it also engages in a wider discourse about religious confl ict, political persecution, and violence in the modern world, from multiple perspec-tives. Swayne’s compositional methods, as discussed in this article, emphasize opposition and disruption on the one hand, but also integration, continuity, and coexistence. His skill at reinterpreting and transforming the diverse textures,


styles, and emotions that make up Dolorosa allow Swayne to realize his goal of creating “music that speaks to the heart while challenging the mind.” Hearing (and performing) Dolorosa is a powerfully moving experience precisely because of the work’s combination of familiar and unfamiliar features, its simul-taneously compelling and destabilizing aspects, and its beautifully disturbing character.

NOTES

1 Thomas Altmann, “Disturbingly Beautiful,” review

of Giles Swayne, Dolorosa, Middle German Radio Choir conducted by Horward Arman, Dessau, Germany, November 13, 2011, trans. Giles Swayne and Rober t Gehrenbeck, Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, November 16, 2011.

2 Giles Swayne, Dolorosa, op. 131 (London: Gonzaga Music Publishers, 2011); ibid, Stabat Mater, op. 95 (London: Gonzaga, 2004). Swayne’s Stabat Mater is scored for unaccompanied voices, and its music forms the core of the later Dolorosa. Most of the discussion in this article applies equally well to both versions of the work. Swayne has also published a suite of four movements excerpted from the original Stabat Mater, called Four Passiontide Motets, op. 95a (London: Gonzaga, 2004).

3 In a review of a recent CD of Swayne’s choral works, the London Times called Swayne “the fi nest choral composer writing today.” Rick Jones, review of Convocation by Giles Swayne, The Times, October 7, 2006. Eight years earlier, after the premiere of Swayne’s The Silent Land—a work scored, like Dolorosa, for large chorus and solo cello—another Times reviewer proclaimed Swayne “the most accomplished choral composer in Britain.” Richard Morrison, “Master of the Voices,” review of The Silent Land by Giles Swayne, Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, and English Voices conducted by Timothy Brown, The Times, June 24, 1998.

4 Giles Swayne, program note for Stabat Mater, The

Save $100Save $100

When You Register for the Conference Before February 15thWhen You Register for the Conference Before February 15th

Time is MoneyTime is Money



Silent Land, Magnifi cat I, Ave verum corpus, The Dmitri Ensemble conducted by Graham Ross (Naxos 8.572595, 2010), 4.

5 Giles Swayne, program note for Cry, BBC Singers conducted by John Poole (BBC Atrium, 1985; reissued, London: NMC Recordings NMC D016, 1993). Swayne has since revised his estimation of Stockhausen, referring to him as one of contemporary composers he most respected shortly before Stockhausen’s death in 2007. Swayne, interview by the author (Bloomington, Ind., April 20–22, 2005).

6 Giles Swayne, interview by author. The LP Swa-yne heard was Music of the Ba-Benzélé Pygmies, UNESCO Collection: An Anthology of African Music: vol 3 (Kassel: Bärenreiter Musicaphon BM 30L 2303, 1965). The Babenzele are a group of hunter-gatherers who live in the equatorial rain forest of central Africa. This particular recording has infl uenced countless American and European musicians in addition to Swayne, including Jazz legend Herbie Hancock and the Belgian pop group, Zap Mama. Swayne’s own recordings of the music of the Jola people, made in 1982, are housed in the British Library and can be accessed via a link at the composer’s personal Web site, <gilesswayne.com>.

7 Giles Swayne, Cry, op. 27 (Borough Green, Kent: Novello, 1981); ibid, Magnifi cat, op. 33 (Borough Green, Kent: Novello, 1986); ibid., Missa Tiburtina, op. 40, enlarged version (London: Novello, 1999).

8 Giles Swayne, Stabat Mater, 71. 9 This interpretation of Swayne’s music and the

discussion that follows is based on Robert Gehrenbeck, “Creating Complexity by Layering Simplicities: An Analysis of Giles Swayne’s Cry, Magnifi cat I, Missa Tiburtina, and Stabat Mater (DM diss., Indiana University, 2007).

10 The translations given in this article are Swayne’s own.

11 Giles Swayne, Dolorosa, ii. 12 The complete text and translation of Swayne’s

libretto for Stabat Mater, which is identical with the libretto for Dolorosa, can be viewed online at <www.naxos.com> by searching for “Swayne Stabat Mater” and then following the “Sung Text” link. As of August, 2012, the exact URL was <http://www.naxos.com/sharedfi les/PDF/8.572595_sungtext.pdf#>.

13 This is stanza one of the original poem.14 Stanza eleven of the original poem.15 Excerpt from Salat al-Janazah. There are many

different systems for transliterating Arabic into the Roman alphabet. Swayne consulted

with British Arabic scholars when making his own, which is reproduced here, with two modifi cations. In the score of Dolorosa, to help singers achieve a more accurate pronunciation, Swayne doubles long vowels and denotes stressed syllables with accent marks (see the music examples below). In this excerpt from Swayne’s libretto, however, all the vowels have been left single and the accent marks omitted, to minimize confusion with other transliterated versions readers may have seen elsewhere.

16 Swayne borrowed this Latin phrase from the Agnus Dei of the Mass Ordinary. In terms of duration, Swayne devotes roughly 45 percent of the music of Dolorosa to the libretto’s Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew portions, with the Latin-texted segments occupying the remaining 55 percent.

17 Giles Swayne, Dolorosa, ii. 18 Giles Swayne, Stabat Mater, ii. Actually, the Latin

poem repeats three-line stanzas of eight, eight, and then seven syllables.

19 Swayne’s use of pentatonic scales or “modes” in his African-inspired pieces refl ects the prominence of pentatonic scales in traditional west African music. See Gehrenbeck, 34–46.

20 For example, the tritone C–F♯ partitions the

chromatic scale beginning on C into two halves, one beginning on C and the other beginning on F

♯, with each half containing

six pitches.21 Swayne’s musical realization of this passage is

shown below in Figure 1.22 Because each modal key area includes two

keynotes a tritone apart, the second six of Swayne’s modal key areas have the same two keynotes as the fi rst six, but in reverse order. While both keynotes are important, Swayne’s music usually gives primacy to the fi rst one, creating a large-scale progression of key notes within the work that traverses the chromatic scale exactly once, from C to B.

23 For sake of clarity, the choral bass part and the cello part have been omitted from the music example.

24 The music of this line is discussed more fully below.

25 This discussion of Stanza I leaves out the role of the four vocal soloists and the cello, whose music contrasts sharply with that of the choir. These elements of the score are considered below.

26 The cello part will be discussed below. 27 For an explanation of how the modifi ed forms of

the motive are related to the primary motive, see Gehrenbeck, 230–231.

28 The concluding portion of the music for this stanza is shown in Figure 8, below.

29 The complete text of this movement, with Swayne’s own translation, is as follows:

Barùkh atà adonày elohènu, [Blessed art Thou, Lord, our God,]

Mèlekh ha olàm, [King of the universe,]

ashèr yatsàr etkhèm badìn, [who created you all justly,]

vezàn etkhèm badìn, [and justly nourished you,]

vehemìt etkhèm badìn, [and has killed you justly,]

veyodèâ mispàr kulkhèm badìn, [and justly knows the number of you all.]

Vehù âtìd le hahayòtkhem, [He will bring you back to life]

ulekayèm badìn. [and recreate you, justly.]

Barùkh atà, adonày, [Blessed art Thou, Lord,]

mehayè ha-metìm. [reviver of the dead.]

Barùkh uvarùkh shemò. [Blessed and blessed Thy name.]

The source of this prayer within the Bab-

ylonian Talmud is Berakhot 58b. 30 Stefan Reif is the founder and former director

of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University and author of Judaism and Hebrew Prayer: New Perspectives on Jewish Liturgical Histor y (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

31 Although the Babylonian Talmud was redacted into its present form much later (about the sixth century), Reif believes that the language and content of this par ticular blessing, together with the discussions about it in the Talmud, point to an earlier date. In particular, this blessing is written in the style of Mishnaic Hebrew, which dates from the fi rst three centuries C.E. Stefan Reif, personal communication, August 7, 2012.

32 Giles Swayne, program note for Stabat Mater, The Silent Land, Magnifi cat I, Ave verum corpus, The Dmitri Ensemble conducted by Graham Ross (Naxos 8.572595, 2010), 4–5.

33 Giles Swayne, Dolorosa, ii. This discussion of the “Jewish Blessing” segment of Swayne’s work benefi ted greatly from the insights and advice


CHORAL WORKS BY GILES SWAYNE

Major Works

Alleluia! (Jerusalem Bible, York Cycle of Mystery Plays), narrator, treble voices, harp, piano, percussion; 17', Novello, 1976

Cry (phonetic text), 28 amplifi ed solo voices, electronics; 80', Novello, 1979

Missa Tiburtina (Latin Mass ordinary), SATB soli, SATB unaccompanied; 20', Novello, 1985; enlarged version, Novello, 1999.

No Quiet Place (“Chief Seattle’s Speech” by Ted Perry; Chief Tecumseh; reference books), children’s voices, Orff instruments, strings; 15', Novello, 1989

No Man’s Land (Lewis Carroll, Breyten Breytenbach, Swayne), B solo, SATB, instrumental ensemble (bcl, 1 perc, hp, vn, vc, db); 14', Novello, 1990

The Song of the Tortoise (Swayne, after Ghanaian folktale), narrator, children’s chorus, SATB, descant recorders, children’s percussion group, chamber orchestra; 35', Novello, 1992

The Tiger (Willam Blake, Dante Alighieri), SSSATB soli, SSSAATTBB unaccompanied; 15', Novello, 1995

The Silent Land (Requiem Mass, Dylan Thomas, Christina Rossetti, Robert Louis Stevenson), 40-part mixed chorus, cello; 20', Novello, 1996

Petite Messe solitaire (Latin Mass Ordinary, French text by Swayne), SATB, unison chorus unaccompanied; 12', Novello, 1997 Havoc (Sophocles, Swayne), Countertenor, 28 amplifi ed solo voices, solo fl ute, continuo group (celesta, marimba, harp, theorbo), chamber orchestra; 80', Novello, 1999

of my colleague, Allison Fromm. 34 Giles Swayne, Dolorosa, ii; Altmann, “Disturbingly

Beautiful.” 35 Swayne often requires the cellist to play both

natural and artifi cial harmonics. Both types produce a thin, hollow-sounding tone. Figure 13, below, shows both kinds of harmonics. The notated A5 in m. 723, beat 1, is played as a natural harmonic, sounding at the notated pitch—the cellist lightly touches the A-string at the proper location to produce the harmonic. In mm. 723, beat 3 through the end of the example, Swayne notates artifi cial harmonics. The lower of the two notes indicates where the cellist stops the string while simultaneously touching the same string a fourth higher, as indicated by the notation. These harmonics sound two octaves higher than the stopped pitch. Thus the second note in measure 723—the artifi cial harmonic—sounds as F5, that is, a major third lower than the previous pitch, the natural harmonic on A5.

36 Because Neapolitan harmony almost always precedes dominant harmony, this lends even more weight to the following C

♯ chord (m.

50) as V of F♯.

37 The top two pitches of the dominant seventh chord appear in Swayne’s score as D♭ and F, but, functionally, they should be spelled as C# and E

♯. Swayne frequently uses enharmonic

equivalents to make melodic intervals within individual voice parts more recognizable.

38 A three-bar cello interlude, not shown in Figure 9, restates the modal key notes of both the outgoing stanza (B♭ and E) and the incoming one (B and F). This interlude undermines the strength of the V–I cadence in the choral layer, another example of how Swayne sets up tonal ways of hearing his music, but then “disturbs” the familiarity of such hearings.

39 Another way Swayne prepares the listener to hear the cadence on gloria as normal is his use of similarly expressive half-step “slips” throughout this fi nal stanza. In m. 635 of Figure 9, F♯ minor unexpectedly becomes F♯ major on beat 3 (with A♯ spelled as B♭). In mm. 640–651 of Figure 10, E major becomes F minor. And, over a longer span of music, the initial A-major chord in m. 634 of Figure 9 reappears as A minor at the end of this phrase, on beat 3 of m. 637. These chromatic

shifts—often including parallel motion—prepare the listener to expect the same type of voice leading at the end of the stanza on the word gloria.

40 Giles Swayne, Stabat Mater, ii. 41 See Gehrenbeck, 249–252; 261–264.42 In both cases, “modal” canons are at work. That

is, each voice in the canon represents the same sequence of steps through the pitches of the eight-note mode. The contour of each voice remains the same, although intervallic content will sometimes differ between the voices because of the arrangement of intervals within the mode itself. The same type of imitation occurs in tonal counterpoint as well—contour is preserved, but intervals may differ.



Stabat Mater (Latin sequence, ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic prayers), SATB soli, SSAATTBB unaccompanied; 37’, Gonzaga, 2004

The Human Heart (William Blake), SATB unaccompanied, 15’, Novello, 2009

Dolorosa [expanded version of Stabat Mater], SATB soli, SSAATTBB, cello; 43’, Gonzaga, 2011

Uncommon Prayers (George Scott-Moncrieff), SATB, clarinet, horn, cello, contrabass; 19’, Gonzaga, 2012

Shor ter Works wi th So lo Ins t rument ( s )

Ophelia Drowning (Shakespeare), SATB, fl ute; 9’, Novello, 1996

Winter Solstice Carol (Swayne, Latin antiphon), SATB, fl ute; 5’, Novello, 1998

The Flight of the Swan (twelfth-century Latin), SATB, fl ute, cello; 6’, Novello, 1999

The Dug-out (Siegfried Sassoon), SATB, organ, trumpet; 5’, Gonzaga, 2007

O My Dear Heart (Wedderburn), solo Alto, SATB, lute (or harp); 3’, Gonzaga, 2008

O Mysteria (Lucretius), SSAATTBB, fl ute; 4’, Gonzaga, 2009

Adam lay ibounden (Medieval English), SSAATTBB, cello; 5’, Gonzaga, 2009

Hubbub (Kevin Crossley-Holland), SSATBB, fl ute; 5’, Gonzaga, 2010

The Word (Kevin Crossley-Holland), SATB, fl ute; 3½’, Gonzaga, 2010

Shor ter Works wi th Keyboard Accompaniment

Nunc dimittis I (Latin canticle), SATB, organ; 5’, Novello, 1986

O magnum mysterium (Latin antiphon), SSA, organ; 2’, Novello, 1986

Veni Creator I (Latin hymn, Swayne), treble voices, SATB, organ; 6’, Novello, 1987

Veni Creator II (Latin hymn), SATB, organ; 6’, Novello, 1987

Psalm 1: Beatus vir (Psalm 1 in English), SATB, organ; 3’, Novello, 1996

The Two Nowells (English carol, Swayne), unison voices, keyboard; 5’, Novello, 1999

The Owl and the Pussycat II (Edward Lear), SSAA, piano; 6’, Novello, 2003

Joseph’s Carol (Swayne), unison voices with descant, piano or organ, 2’, Novello, 2003

Magnifi cat II (Latin canticle), SATB soli, SATB chorus, organ; 9’, Gonzaga, 2004

Nunc dimittis II (Latin canticle), SATB soli, SATB chorus, organ; 5’, Gonzaga, 2005

The Coventry Carol (English carol), SATB, piano; 4’, Gonzaga, 2005

A Clare Eucharist (Order One), SATB, organ; 9’, Gonzaga, 2006

Two Little Motets (Panis angelicus and Anima Christi), treble voices, organ; 2 ½’ each, Gonzaga, 2006

Jesus, Springing (Kevin Crossley-Holland), SATB, organ; 3’, Gonzaga, 2008

Sweet Was the Song (William Ballett), SATB, organ; 3’, Gonzaga, 2010

Unaccompanied Works

Three Shakespeare Songs (Cymbeline, The Tempest), SSAATTBB, 5’, Novello, 1969

Magnifi cat I (Latin canticle), SSAATTBB, 5’, Novello, 1982

Two Romantic Songs (John Keats), SSAATTBB, 10’, Novello, 1994

The Tiglet (excerpt from The Tiger), SATB, 3’, Novello, 1995


GILES SWAYNE: SELECT DISCOGRAPHY OF CHORAL WORKSGILES SWAYNE: SELECT DISCOGRAPHY OF CHORAL WORKS

Swayne, Giles. Cry. BBC Singers conducted by John Poole. BBC Atrium, 1985; reissued, NMC Recordings NMC D016, 1993.

________. Choral Works [Magnifi cat I, Missa Tiburtina, Nunc dimittis I, O magnum mysterium, Ophelia Drowning, The Tiger, Three Shakespeare Songs, Veni creator II]. BBC Singers conducted by Stephen Cleobury. Collins Classics 15312, 1998.

________. Convocation. National Youth Choir of Great Britain and Laudibus, conducted by Michael Brewer [includes Four Pas-siontide Motets, Magnifi cat I, Missa Tiburtina, Midwinter, The Tiglet, and Winter Solstice Carol]. Delphian Records DCD 30433, 2006.

________. Stabat mater, The silent land, Magnifi cat I, Ave verum corpus, The Dmitri Ensemble conducted by Graham Ross. Naxos 8.572595, 2010. This CD also includes Swayne’s own fi eld recording of the Senegalese plowing song, O Lulum, which Swayne quotes in Magnifi cat I.

Recordings of Traditional African Music:

Africa: The Ba-Benzélé Pygmies. Anthology of World Music. Cambridge, Mass.: Rounder Records CD 5107, 1998. This is a reissue of the infl uential recording that Swayne fi rst heard in 1977, Music of the Ba-Benzélé Pygmies (Kassel: Bärenreiter Musicaphon BM 30L 2303, 1965).

Giles Swayne Senegal Collection. British Library (online resource). Available from <http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Giles-Swayne-Jola-music>

Missa Brevissima (excerpts from Petite Messe solitaire), SATB, 5’, Novello, 1997

Midwinter (Christina Rossetti), SATB, 5’, Novello, 2003

Ave verum corpus (Latin hymn), SATB, 3’, Gonzaga, 2004

Four Passiontide Motets [excerpts from Stabat Mater], SATB soli, SSAATTBB; 10’ Gonzaga, 2004Lonely Hearts (Wendy Cope), SATB, 10’, Gonzaga, 2004

There Is No Rose (Medieval English carol), solo S, SSATB; 4’, Gonzaga, 2006

Der Wandersmann (Joseph Christian von Zedlitz), SSSAAATTTBBB, 4’, Gonzaga, 2010

Laulu Laululle (the Kalevala, in Finnish), SSSAATTBB, 6’, Gonzaga, 2011

Clare Canticles (Magnifi cat and The Song of Simeon, in English), SSAATTBB, 4‘, Gonzaga, 2011

The New-Born (Swayne), SATB, 3’, Gonzaga, 2012

Collect ions

Choral Album (Psalm 1, Missa brevissima, O magnum mysterium, Veni creator I, Veni Creator II), Novello, 2001

Four Christmas Carols (Starlight, The Two Nowells, Joseph’s Carol, The Coventry Carol), Novello, 2005

Four Carols (O My Dear Heart; Jesus, Springing; Sweet Was the Song; The New-born), Gonzaga, 2012

Publi shers

Novello and Company, London,<www.chester-novello.com>

Gonzaga Music Publishers, London, <www.gonzagamusic.co.uk>

disturbingly beautiful - aws

Documents