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 and borduns, as well as fully harmonized phrases.

The chant is always at the forefront of the composition; whoever has the main line affects how the others move. All singers should tailor non-chant lines to liberties in the text, hold through breaths in the chant, and bring about harmonic changes in a way that matches syllabic stress. The ensemble should collectively create space for emphatic musical and artistic decisions.

This arrangement ends with the text: “The dangerously broken, how holy are you,” in a whispered and plosive manner, as if coming from the fire mentioned in the title. The dangerously broken can so often go unrecognized, and spiritual signs and symbols like the sacred fire may be one’s only affirmation and comfort while in great distress.