Lent V Communio • FREE “Choral Expansion”
The communion antiphon for Lent V is striking: it sets to music the dramatic moment when Christ calls Lazarus forth from the tomb. In the interest of making the precise moment of Christ’s call even more intense, I’ve devised a “choral expansion”. (While I am offering this arrangement for free, those who are mercifully inclined to support our efforts here may "purchase" it for $2.50 by following this link.)
I have transcribed the Latin original into modern stemless notation (with verses taken from Communio) and I have also completely transcribed the antiphon into English, with great care taken to keep the original word order as close as possible to the Latin original so that the integrity of the original chant remains intact. Both adaptations are equally successful, and a novus ordo choir could easily chant it in one language and then repeat it in the other to satisfy both those who love Latin and those who prefer the vernacular.
It should be noted that this arrangement will be most successful in churches with a “wet” acoustic. The concept is to call out to Lazarus and pause, only calling out to him again the micro-second before the sound completely trails off. This also means that the length of the pauses will need to be adjusted based on any given acoustical space, and are left to the discretion of the director.
While the demo tracks leave a little to be desired (as is often the case) and a little to the imagination, this arrangement works very well, and our choir picked it up very quickly. (Hopefully we will be able to add a live recording in two weeks!)
As is usual, practice tracks are available, however I only have the Latin versions posted at this time. They do suffice, however, to help choir members learn the English as well, since the notes are identical. Those tracks can be found on the ServiamScores YouTube page here.
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