Hayes Biggs

Double Chorus with Soprano and Alto Soloists

Composer's Note:

O Oriens is one of the so-called “O Antiphons” for each day of the last week of Advent, so named because they all begin with the word “O”. Each of these titles is a name for Christ, reflecting his attributes as mentioned in scripture. Many English speaking Christian worshipers know these from singing the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (Veni Emmanuel), whose individual stanzas paraphrase the antiphons. O Oriens refers to Christ as the Rising Sun or Morning Star. Both the words and tune of the chorale „Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” are attributed to Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608), a German Lutheran pastor who also authored another celebrated chorale, „Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme.” Both melodies are perhaps best known in their harmonizations and other adaptations (chorale preludes, movements of cantatas, etc.) by Johann Sebastian Bach. While this hymn is most often associated with Epiphany (the Star of Bethlehem followed by the Magi), it is said that Nicolai wrote it in response to a pestilence that had struck his village in 1597.

The piece begins with a fanfare-like declamation of O Oriens for soprano and alto soli, who shortly are joined by the rest of the chorus. Though this section is quite chromatic in its harmonic language, it is connected, if only tangentially, to the oddball A major tonality in which much of the work lives. After the initial music concludes, the first verse of the chorale tune abruptly barges in after a short pause, clothed in a very full and active contrapuntal texture. Once it has reached a high point, the piece immediately reverts to a continuation of the text and music of the original treble-voiced duo, followed by a brief final challenge by the full choir to “darkness and the shadow of death.”