O Sacrum Convivium

for SATB choir and soprano soloist

Total Duration: 3:30 min.

Text: O Sacrum Convivium

Program Notes:

I first encountered “O Sacrum Convivium” while searching for a text to fulfil the commission from Palmer Episcopal Church organized through the Happy Composer Commission Project. I fell in love with this brief yet profound meditation on the mystery of the Eucharist, which sparked meditations of my own. The tiniest morsels are a banquet when Christ is present, for they lead us through a progression of remembering the past, receiving grace in the present, and looking forward to the future glory of experiencing God fully. The piece opens with the lower voices, evoking a sense of introspection and mystery. The descending motif represents God’s grace flowing to us. I conveyed the progression of passion to glory by raising certain scale tones in repetitions of this motif. This representation of hope expands by the end of the piece with a complementary ascending motif.

Text:

O sacrum convivium!

in quo Christus sumitur:

recolitur memoria passionis ejus:

mens impletur gratia

et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur,

alleluia.

O sacred banquet,

in which Christ is received;

the memory of his Passion is renewed;

the mind is filled with grace;

and a pledge of future glory is given to us.

Alleluia.