O Ignis Spiritus - SATB Choral Octavo (PDF Edition)

Performance Note:

I studied Hildegard's O Ignis Spiritus  extensively during summer 2016 in Briançon, France, and wanted to construct a choral arrangement of the text. The piece is a hybrid of free chant and SATB choral form, utilizing planing fourths/fifths, borduns,  and fully harmonized phrases.  

The chant remains at the forefront of the composition; whoever has the main line determines the movement of other voices. Singers should adapt non-chant lines to the liberties in the text, holding through breaths in the chant, and shape the harmonic changes with sensitivity towards the chant's phrase syllabic stress. The ensemble should collectively create space for emphatic musical and artistic liberties.

The arrangement concludes with the phrase, “The dangerously broken, how holy are you,” sung in a whispered, plosive manner, as if emerging from the fire referenced in the title. Without the comfort of others, spiritual signs and symbols like sacred fire are imagined here as a grounding presence, in times of great distress.