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Saulesco, David
SATB a cappella
Pie pellicane, Jesu Domine was written in June 2023 for a choral composition competition. The challenge was to relate in any way to the 20th-century English composer Gerald Finzi's choral work Lo, the full, final sacrifice . Finzi had put together a text of quotes from two poems by Thomas Aquinas, translated into English by the 17th-century poet Richard Crashaw. I picked my own selection of quotes from the same poems, but based on the original Latin texts: "Adoro te devote" and "Lauda Sion".
As early as the 4th century, the myth of the mother pelican killing her young, mourning them for three days and then pecking holes in her own chest to revive the young with her blood was described. During the Middle Ages, the myth spread widely in the Christian world. The pelican became a symbol of Christ and the myth inspired many religious works of art and poetry.
The motet is structured in three parts. The musical content has been inspired in various, discrete ways by Gerald Finzi's music, like small seeds from which my music has grown. For example, my opening melody in the first part has a similar outline to Finzi's ditto where he has set the same text to music. The rhythm, tonal content and harmony are different, but if you compare the works side by side you can see similarities in the melodic curve.
The first part is dramatic and challenging: a persistent prayer from an ardent heart. The contrasting middle part is bold, jubilant, rising to an ecstatic exclamation. Finally, another prayer; quiet and secure, in the certainty of the victory of light over darkness.
/David Saulesco 2025
