Deborah Hurd

O Sons and Daughters

• Premiere: November 2017 / Minneapolis / The Singers / Matthew Culloton

• Instrumentation: Two-part, mixed or equal voices, and organ

• Appropriate for choirs of all levels

• Suitable for worship or performance

Program Note

Completed in 2008, this motet is one in a cycle of four written for the Choir of Grace Episcopal Church in Newton, Massachusetts, and its director, Dr. Linda J. Clark.  I was a staff singer and Director of the Junior Choir at Grace Church from 2005 - 2009. During this time, I had the opportunity to write and premiere more than a dozen motets, solidifying my technique in the choral idiom. 

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In my capacity as a staff singer, I sat directly facing a series of four stained glass windows, each depicting a scene from Christ's life - birth, baptism, death, and resurrection. Each motet in this cycle is  a choral meditation on one of these windows, and is written for a choir of any size and composition that can be evenly divided into two voice parts.

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Additional titles in this series:

 O Glorious Mystery (O Magnum Mysterium) Fourth Lesson Responsory for Matins on Christmas Day

All who are baptized in Christ (Omnes in Christo baptizati) Communio for the Baptism of Our Lord Galatians 3:27; Psalm 28 (29):3,8 KJV

There Stood His Mother (Stabat Mater) Sequence for Good Friday