My dear friend Jake recently sent me his most recent composition, Litany of the Sacred Heart, for voices, clarinets, and strings. It's a devoted and imaginative setting of (mostly) sacred texts. I was struck by the soulful spareness of much of the piece—the overall tone if it reminded me of the gentle, understated quality in the chanting of Benedictine monks I recently observed at Conception Abbey in nearby Maryville.
Here are a couple intriguing excerpts from the premiere which featured, among other excellent musicians, Jake's lovely wife, Kara, masterfully on clarinet.
Repetitions of Cor Jesu (“Heart of Jesus”) and miserére nobis (“have mercy on us”) anchor this middle section as pizz vines around. The end of this excerpt begins a harrowing depiction of hell.
The fragile beginning of a setting of the Thomas Aquinas hymn, O Salutaris Hostia.
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