From Heaven There Came A Sound

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1 From Heaven There Came A Sound ~ for children's choir, SATB choir, piano and percussion ~ Music by Christopher Hoh Text from Acts 2, Psalm 10 "Veni Creator Spiritus" HohMade Music 619 Seventh Street South Arlington, VA 2220 USA

2 From Heaven There Came A Sound When the day of Pentecost had come, they ere all together in one place And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent ind, and it filled the entire house here they ere sitting Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them Then all ere filled ith the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability Bless the Lord, O my soul Lord my God, you are great Veni Creator Spiritus, Mentes tuorum visita: Ilesuperna gratia Quae tu creasti pectora Come, Creator Spirit, Instill your ill (in us): Overfill ith grace The hearts you have created All ere amazed and perplexed, and said to one another, "What does this mean" But Peter raised his voice and spoke to them: "In the last days it ill be," God declares, "that I ill pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams" I ill sing praise to God O my soul, bless the Lord Acts 2, verses 1 -, 12, 1, 17; Psalm 10, verses 1, 33 35; Veni Creator Spiritus, verse 1 (9th Century chant, attr Rabanus Maurus) Coiled C Hoh

3 About "From Heaven There Came A Sound" This piece resulted hen Daniel Elmer, Music Director at St Monica and St ames Episcopal Church on Washington's Capitol Hill, asked me to rite something for Pentecost 2009 that ould involve the children's choir The drama of speaking in tongues seemed like a great "teaching moment" for the young singers, ho ould benefit from Dan's linguistic instruction as ell as theological and musical To create a rare and mysterious atmosphere, the piano sustains key tones and overtones throughout by use of the sosenuto (middle) pedal Percussion punctuates the proceedings ith a soft cymbal and drum Long lo notes in the accoaniment and harmony using fourths and seconds serve to create a a still but unsettled atmosphere similar to the tense calm before a storm, it seems to me The adult choir narrates the story in the first to verses, ith the children adding effects to illustrate the descending Spirit and the rushing ind Then, in response to the miracle, all break into a sile refrain of praise from Psalm 10 The children continue the psalmist's song in a variety of languages and teos, creating in music the ondrous babble described in the Gospel Against these musical mumurings, tenors and basses chant the ancient Pentecost hymn Veni Creator Spiritus come Creator Spirit They represent God's people orshiping their Creator through the ages, hile high piano notes portray the presence of the Spirit, reminiscent of the children's "Holy Spirit" motif heard previously The drum breaks the spell and brings us back to the narrative and to the perplexed onlookers, leading to a third verse in hich Peter explains the meaning of these events His talk of divine visions and dreams brings on a ne musical theme; its rising movement presents a contrast to the previous stillness This music begins in the loer voices and spreads among the sections polyphonically, like excited gossip The children add their "Holy Spirit" motif on top, building to an end here all oin, in the same language, to sing ords of the Psalm While this piece has a ne age feel, my intention in riting it as to create a mood of mystery, drama and excitement Most of all, in keeping ith the occasion, performers and listeners should be oyful! Christopher Hoh, September 2009

4 Commissioned by the Episcopal Parish of St Monica St ames, Washington, DC, and dedicated to its Children's Choir, May 2009 From Heaven There Came A Sound Acts 2, Psalm 10 9th Century Chant attr Rabanus Maurus Christopher Hoh "Veni Creator Spiritus" Percussion Piano Mysterious and calm ( q = c 60) (prepare silently) Sostenuto pedal* Susp Cymb: y y p # y y y y y Children Choir When the day of Pen-te-cost had come, they ere Perc y y y Pno p * Keep sostenuto (middle) pedal depressed throughout the piece, so the seven notes prepared silently may ring and vibrate syathetically Copyright 2009 by Christopher Hoh Licensed for single group use and copying All other duplication and mechanical rights reserved

5 all to- geth - er in one place And sud-den- ly # > > from y (sud - den - ly) 10 from heav heav 10 - * en y Tom-tom: - en, (nnn) there came a sound, there came a sound, a sound, a sound, cresc cresc cresc thru m 18 * A fe sopranos may reinforce the children's part if needed, alternating beteen the lines as indicated Care should be taken in finishing the last ord from the old line and starting the initial ord from the ne line: connect them and de-ehasize the consonants in beteen, eg in meas "there came a sou' n'a sou' n'a sound like"

6 13 a sound like the russhhh* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ rush - - of a n vi - o-lent ind, y y ~~ and it filled the en-tire house here they ere sit - ting 16 n b y * * * Children sustain the SH "ind" sound into beat one of measure 16 Loud, varying "pitch" is OK (ithin reason)!

7 Di-vid -ed tongues, as of p y y # # y y y y fire, ap-peared a-mong them, and a tongue rest - ed on y y y 22

8 25 each of them Then 25 # all ere filled ith the y (all ere filled) Ho - ly Ho - ly Spi - y 28 Spir - it, the Ho - ly * Spir - - rit and be-gan to speak in oth - er lan-guag-es, it, the as the 28 y * Sopranos reinforcing the children sing "Spirit" then "languages" Sustain the first syllable of "Spirit" over the to eighth notes, so the result is something like "Spir' d'languages"

9 31 Ho - ly Spir - it Spi - rit gave them a - bil - i - ty f Bless the f f Bless the y 31 > () 3 Lord, O my soul; Lord my God, you are Lord, O my soul; Lord my God, you are percussion tacet to meas 5 3 b

10 * SPANISH: GERMAN: HEBREW: OTHER: f f Ben f f - di - ce a e - ho Lo Bah - be den Herrn, mein - e See - le Herr mein vá, al ma mí a Di os - r'khee neph - shee Ye - ho - vah El - o - great Bless the Lord, O my soul; Lord my 37 great b * Measures 37-1 are to be performed by children, some sopranos if desired and piano, ith each performer choosing his or her on teo Children and sopranos repeat their phrases several times, starting out strong (rather loud) and gradually getting softer They should sing in various languages, choosing from the exales here and in the appendix Performers may rite in their individual parts using the blank staff labeled "other" The piano repeats this section once After that, it goes on to the next section (measures 1-5), here the tenors and basses oin to chant the "Veni Creator Spiritus" hymn (sloly and freely but together), hile the children and sopranos continue repeating their phrases Children and sopranos should fade aay as the tenors and basses come to the end of the hymn In measure 5 the piano sustains its chord, as the fermatas indicate Then the piece resumes at measure 6 ith all parts together normally, beginning ith the percussion pick-up notes

11 0 0 mí -o, te has en-gran-de - ci - do Gott, du bist God, you are herr - hai gad - hal - tah meh - od great ( ) (Ben) lich Ve - ni Cre - a - tor 2 (Play the left-hand Eb's one ocatve loer, as indicated) W W 3 ( ) Spi ri tus, (Play the chords in the octave here ritten) - - Men-tes tu - o - rum vi - si - ta: Im - ple - su - 3 W W W W

12 U As At First 6 U ( ) -per - na gra-ti -a Quae tu cre - a- sti pe-cto-ra 5 W W U U U U U 6 loca y y 7 5 All ere a-mazed and per-plexed, and said to one an - oth-er, "What does p # n y y y n 5 5

13 n this mean" But Pe - ter n y y nn raised his voice y pp b b and The Ho - ly Spir - spoke to them: # cresc 53 -it, () God de - clares, "that I 53 y "In the last days it ill be that y y y I

14 56 56 ill pour out my the Ho - ly Spir - Spi - rit up - on all flesh, # it And ('pon all flesh) # " and your your sons and your your sons, your y daugh-ters and sons shall pro-phe-sy, daugh-ters shall pro-phe-sy, daugh-ters shall pro - phe-sy, shall pro-phe-sy, cresc div y > cresc

15 unis 3 y and your young men shall see vi - sions, and your your old men shall dream dreams, y your young men shall see vi - sions, and your young men shall see vi - sions, and your your young men shall see

16 66 old men shall dream dreams" The Ho - ly * 66 old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see vi - sions, and your old men shall dream dreams, y vi -sions, and your your young men shall see y 68 Spir - it, the Ho - ly Spir - it, the 68 old men shall dream dreams, your * vi - sions, and your old # men young men shall see vi - sions, and your shall dream, * Sopranos sing upper text (children's) meas Tenors sing upper text (alto) meas 68 end - 70

17 70 70 Ho-ly Spir - it Sopr: Ho - ly Spir-it old men shall shall 6 they shall dream 6 6 b 6 6 I ill dreams f dream I ill dream b f y y > A f sing praise to I ill sing praise to N sing praise to # N 6 b b 73 God O my soul, div* bless the Lord God O my soul, bless the Lord # # y y 73 > > n > N N * Divide sopranos and altos among the three parts >

18 Appendix Percussion Key y y Suspended Cymbal Scrape from Center to Edge Medium Tom-Tom The cymbal should be large, preferably 20" or more and played ith soft mallets Its scrape may be performed ith the stick end of a mallet (This approach avoids the need to sitch the mallet to a beater or stick) The drum should be medium to large, preferably of indefinite, loer pitch ith some resonance Any of various ethnic drums could be used instead of a tom-tom The drum should be struck gently ith fingers or soft mallets Additional Languages FRENCH: ITALIAN: Mon âme, bé Be-ne-di-ci, a - ni-ma mi-a,l'e-ter-no Mio Di - o, tu seisom-ma-men-te gran-de Be-ne-di-ci APANESE: 5 KOREAN: ARABIC: CHINESE: RUSSIAN: 5 Shu osanbise - - yo, WatashinoTama shi-yo Shu,Wa-ta-shino Ka-mi-yo, A-na-ta a Id-ai Shu o San-biSe - nis l'é - ter - nel É-ter-nelmon Dieu,tues in-fin-i- ment grandmon âme, bé,,,,,,,, 5 OTHER: Performers and the director should feel free to choose a variety of languages to be sung by children and sopranos in measures 37-1 As noted on page 8, each singer should sing the repeated phrases at his or her on teo Performers may sing in additional languages provided their translation of "Bless the Lord, O my soul; Lord my God, you are great" uses rhythms similar to the cooser's exales A blank line has been left in the score for performers to rite in their on translations if desired The effect should be a shimmering five-tone chord from hich snippets of praise come and go in multiple tongues With this pleasant cacophony of praise as background, the ancient hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus" emerges from the loer voices and piano The children and sopranos must remember to become gradually softer and to listen to the hymn so they kno hen to fade aay

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œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ Novemer 21st The First Antiphon Traditional Russian (Znamenny) Chant (A) Through the in - ter - ces - sions of the The - o - to - kos, O Sav - ior, save us Adapted y Michael G Farro from the music of Frederick