Nunc Dimittis
Various versions:
SATB a cappella
(2014)
SAT a cappella
(2020)
SAB/Piano
(2020)
by Ron Hannah

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Duration: about 2 minutes

     This is a setting of the Biblical text (in English, from the Book of Common Prayer), suitable for concert or church service performance. Many composers have set this text to music over the centuries, and now I try my hand as well.

     Originally it was in response to a call for scores from the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music. They suggested that composers may also submit organ works, which I did. The organ work was accepted, while the choral piece was not. C'est la vie.

     If you are a church musician, you may be interested to know that the bass line in the SATB version is based loosely on the soprano line from the Nunc Dimittis of Orlando Gibbons - a suggestion of a cantus firmus.

     For the two trio versions, I have dropped that cantus firmus and re-worked the remaining voices to accommodate tenor or baritone voices. Of the three, I think I prefer the third - SAB/piano - which was premièred at a Lenten concert in Vienna which had had to be postponed because of Covid-19

     If you feel your group might like to perform any of these settings, please send me an email (below). All that I ask is that you inform me of performances so that I can keep this website up-to-date. Have fun!


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