I recently revised 898 Hildegard for SATB and Orchestra, and very excited about this new version! The premiere of the original version for the Genesee Valley Orchestra June 3-4, 2016 was a success, and thrilled with their performance. I realized after hearing it that I still wanted to re-visit a couple sections: the climactic point and the ending of the piece. Knowing that I could have the opportunity to incorporate harp for the Las Vegas Philharmonic premiere April 1, 2017, this opened up many more creative possibilities for me, and decided to completely re-write the ending to feature the harp, clarinet, and flute.
Audio recording at this time is not available. For an idea of the piece, here is a MIDI realization:
898 Hildegard was commissioned by the Genesee Valley Community Orchestra to honor their founder, Sister Virginia Hogan, through the verse and melody of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179). The title is borrowed from the name of a planetoid in our solar system, 898 Hildegard, thus connecting civilization’s ancient cosmos with the one that it continues to discover. I used excerpts from her chants “O Vis Eternitatis” and “O Gloriosissimi Lux Vivens Angeli,” in which the text is about eternity and angels. Then, I listened to the recordings of these chants on the Hildegard Society website (www.hildegard-society.org), and transcribed the performances in order to learn how these chants are presented rhythmically. After studying the intricate details of both chants, I then intertwined the original chant material with my own variations throughout, melding it together into a through-composed composition that not only displays my compositional style, but also highlights these beautiful chants by Hildegard von Bingen.
898 Hildegard was first premiered in Rochester, NY June 3-4, 2-16, and later revised for premiere by the Las Vegas Philharmonic April 1, 2017 at the Smith Center. http://lvphil.org/concert_schedule/performance.php?ID=69
http://lasvegasweekly.com/ae/2016/apr/05/las-vegas-philharmonic-2016-2017-season-star-wars/