About 20 years ago I wrote a setting of the Gloria for SATB choir and orchestra. It has yet to receive it’s first live performance, but I present it here, performed by the wonderful instrument sounds of the Spitfire Audio orchestral instruments, and the very clever EW Symphonic Choirs – a sample library of full choir, which can sing words – at least they can give a pretty good impression of doing so! It takes a long time to input all the various phonetic sounds which approximate to the sounds you need them to sing, and these are not quite perfect. In particular, it’s very difficult to get the choir to sing with any sense of legato whilst still singing words. At least, if there is, I haven’t yet discovered how to do it.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the three movements of my “Gloria”. The first movement is grand, with tutti organ backing up the orchestra.

The second movement is more intimate, and there is a hidden message in the melody. If this were played in C major, the notes would be CEEGE CADBEF. This is no accident. Musicians will know that in music notation there is no note beyond G – it begins again at A.

However, if one were to write the letters in a grid like so…

We can spell words out and turn them into music. Therefore, an A might be an A, or else, an H, O, or V. So in the case of my melody, C is J, E is E, etc. It is a spelling out of Jesus Christ. The second movement is the part of the Gloria which deals with the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The soloist is me.

Then the third section is an upbeat section in 7/8. This gives it an edginess. It would in fact be quite a difficult piece to perform. It ends with a return to the majesty of the first movement, and one more burst of “Gloria”.

Enjoy, and please subscribe for more material.