Raoul Pleskow

Tenor, Soprano, fl, cl, vln, vc, pf

"Motet and Madrigal was written in the summer of 1973 and received it first performance that year at a concert by the Aeolian Chamber Players with Mr. [Charles] Wuorinen, Ms. [Judith] Allen and Mr. [Paul J.] Sperry as guest artists."

"The voices and instruments of the ensemble are largely divided into two units: 1. tenor, flute, cello, piano; and 2. soprano, violin, clarinet. The musical events of the movement are consequently presented and unfolded in an antiphonal manner but undergo numerous other textural and syntactical processes in their progress. In the Madrigal, the instruments play a clearly subordinate role to a treble-dominated line that is shared and dispersed between the soprano and tenor."

"Interlaced with chromatic non-tonal pitch configurations are lines whose shape find their patrimony in the church music of the Middle Ages and tonal centers on the F and C sharp above middle C. This tonal polarity permeates both movements and is antecedent to the repeated B flat minor chords of the Madrigal as well as to the critical points of repetition in both movements."

"The scriptural texts for Motet and Madrigal chosen for their evocative rather than dogmatic content, are taken from the Good Friday Service of the Roman church and a vulgate Latin version of the Song of Songs (IV, 16, V) respectively."

MOTET Crucem Tuam adoramus, Et sanctum resurrectionem Tuam laudamus, Et glorificamus: ...