Music Thread

[ThinkBig]

I'm a huge fan of classical music.



Dixit Dominus by Handel. The text is the Latin translation of Psalm 110.

Translation of the final movement:

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now; and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

[ThinkBig]

Jubilate Deo portrays the global aspect of the traditional Psalm 100 text, “O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands,” by setting it in seven different languages and drawing from a wide spectrum of musical influences. Each movement combines some characteristics of its language-group’s musical culture with the composer’s own musical language. The opening movement sets the ancient liturgical Latin translation of the Psalm in a rather American musical idiom and introduces key musical motives for the work. The second movement sets the “from age to age” portion of the text in Hebrew and Arabic, evoking ancient cultures from the Middle East. The music intentionally intertwines the two languages in a symbolic gesture of unity between these cultures. Movement three, in Mandarin Chinese, is a tranquil setting of the shepherd-sheep metaphor from Psalm 100 and quotes “the Lord is my shepherd” from Psalm 23. The orchestra evokes the sounds of traditional Asian instruments. The fourth movement sets celebratory portions of the text in Zulu and draws from African vocal and drumming traditions. Movement five represents Latin America, setting Spanish text to a folk-song style melody and blending traditional folk instrumental sounds with imitative textures. The sixth movement, “Song of the Earth,” portrays the Earth itself singing—first wordlessly, but eventually finding its own voice— and leads seamlessly into the final movement. The finale unites many of the key themes and cultures from previous movements with other material, both old and new, as all the earth sings as one, “omnis terra, jubilate!”