Philip Carlsen

14-Part Choir with Any 14 Doubling Instruments

Composer's Note:

POLTER TE CRESO pays tribute to Charles Ives and Thomas Tallis, whose astonishing 40-part motet SPEM IN ALIUM was the principal inspiration. It calls for 14 singers and 14 doubling instruments, divided into three choirs which are spatially separated. The text is pronounced as if it were Latin, although it has no meaning (other than what might be drawn out of it by speculative poets!). It was created using chance operations to randomly reorder the syllables of a traditional Latin liturgical text. 

Polter te creso, noctia ad musam.
Rumstrumcom te iemus. 
Regnat lurum tasum.
Praecusnum ad phannatma,
Um correum ad anmen.
Ielu.

The score indicates the doubling instruments that were played in the December 1973 premiere, but any instruments of appropriate registers may be used. Choir B, the four-part group in the middle of the ensemble, is the anchor. It maintains a steady tempo throughout and never strays far from the modal center of D Dorian. Choir A tends to modulate into the sharp keys and accelerate to faster tempos. Its counterpart, Choir C, generally gravitates to flat keys and slower tempos. The main conductor, always associated with Choir B, functions as the leader of the entire ensemble whenever everyone is in sync with the main tempo. In passages where Choirs A and C pursue independent tempos, they require their own conductors (which could be one of the singers or instrumentalists).