Composer’s Corner:An Inside Look at “Glory Be”

Dear friends of Angelico Sacred Music,

I’m currently at Denver International Airport, flying to Bismarck, ND for the premiere of Glory Be in just 4 days! Our dear friends in Cappella at University of Mary have been hard at work for this collaboration, and I’m so excited to bring this piece of musical art to life with them.

We will be performing the piece at the University of Mary’s 8pm Mass in Annunciation Chapel, and a recording will be sent to you the following day!

For me, the most important part of composing is always prayer. I am not the most technically skilled or educated composer, nor can I give composing the same amount of time that many of my composing colleagues do … but I like to pray to Blessed Fra Angelico each time I compose, knowing of all the Angelico supporters who are also praying for me, and I trust the Lord to make up for any personal deficiencies in my musical training through the grace of those prayers.

Trusting in the primacy of grace, Angelico pieces are also distinct because of the creative composition techniques I try my best to apply, and Glory Be is perhaps the best example of this to date! Here are three things you can look forward to hearing in in our newest piece of American Neo-Renaissance Polyphony:

1. Rhapsody Form Roadmap

To provide artistic continuity in Angelico’s growing collection of compositions, every ASM piece follows the elements of The Angelico Style, one of which is Rhapsody Form. This means that there are no verses or repeats of any kind, to constantly engage the listener with new material.

Within a rhapsody framework, Glory Be is divided into 5 sections, each of which is about one minute in duration:

1. Introduction

2. The Father

3. The Son

4. The Holy Spirit

5. Conclusion

   
   

Perhaps my favorite aspect of this piece is that during the transitions from one Divine Person to the next Divine Person, there is always a key change and a tempo change! This gives the listener beautiful and clear recognition that we are in a new section, speaking of a new Divine Person, with His own attributes and relations that are poetically sung in the text that follows.

2. Theological embellishment

Last summer while at a Catholic Institute of Sacred Music conference, after I gave a presentation on Angelico’s composition entitled This is My Body, a listener shared that he felt I was “doing theology in the music.” I’m unsure exactly how much of that was intentional or accidental before, but I can tell you it is very intentional in this weekend’s premiere, as I wrote Glory Be with the desire of beautifully expressing attributes and relations of each Divine Person of the Trinity.

The basses glorify the Father as the “Font of Divine Life.” The altos praise the Son as the Person who “made Your true apostolic Church, our Mother.” And sprinkling in some Latin for a fun change in flavor, the tenors sing to the Holy Spirit “Qui ex Patre Filioque procedit” (Who proceeds from the Father and the Son).

As these lyrics are beautifully blended with overlapping lines through Angelico’s standard polyphony flavor, the result is beautiful art that resembles Christopher Nolan’s movie Inception: you’ll need to listen more than once to make sure you catch everything!

3. Maximal Beauty

While growing in my composing experience over the past two years, I’ve realized something very crucial: composing is a team sport. When I create a piece of musical art, it’s best to know what choir will be premiering it ahead of time, and to write with that choir’s size and strengths in mind.

This is one of the reasons writing for Cappella at UMary is such a delight. The choir is full of scholarship singers from all across the country, and they’re able to sing challenging repertoire.

Part of The Angelico Philosophy is the pillar of “Maximal Beauty.” Simply put, this means we want to create the most beautiful music possible. And with the talented singers at UMary, I’m blessed with a great deal of freedom to do exactly that, following the Holy Spirit’s lead in the creative process.

For example: Cappella’s Soprano 1s ascend to high Bb at the climax off the piece without a problem, while the Bass 2s conclude the piece by dropping to a pedal Eb below the staff. A total of eight vocal parts are used, allowing for some creative, contemporary chord colors throughout the piece. Further, I like to keep the melody bouncing around all of the voice parts, including the basses. This keeps the listener guessing where the main line will be sung from next, which adds another element of intrigue and symmetrical beauty to the piece.

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Thank you so much for your prayers and support that have made this wonderful collaboration with Cappella possible. Please pray for us, and we look forward to sharing more beautiful music, videos, and stories with you soon!

For the beauty of the Church,

Ryan Everson

Composer & Executive Director

Angelico Sacred Music

“Let all that you do be done in charity.” (1 Cor. 16:14)