Deborah Hurd

Windows of Grace (Finestre Graziose)

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

• Appropriate for choirs of all levels

• Suitable for worship or performance

Program Note

Written between November 2007 and August 2009, this set of four motets were written for, and dedicated to the Choir of Grace Episcopal Church in Newton, Massachusetts, and its director, Dr. Linda J. Clark.  As a staff singer at Grace, 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 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.

Click on the titles below to purchase sheet music from ECS/Canticle.

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

2) 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

3) There stood his mother (Stabat mater) Sequence for Good Friday

4) O Sons and Daughters (O filli et filliae) Jean Tisserand, O.F.M. (d. 1494)