When Al Hawkins reached out to me last fall about commissioning a new choral work for Deo Cantamus, my initial reaction was equal parts excited and scared. Excited because I love a compositional challenge, and scared because I've never written an extended work before and was unsure how everything would come together thematically, musically, and cohesively. I immediately deep-dove into a search for just the right theme and corresponding texts.
I came across Horatius Bonar's poetry, much of which centers on the Triune God and how the Father, Son, and Spirit minister to us as God's children. In the following months, these texts took root in my heart and mind, along with well-known hymn texts and Scripture passages that all came together to provide a compelling theme for the five choral pieces that make up TRINITY: Our God of Hope and Help:
I. One Jehovah
II. Look at the Birds
III. What a Savior, What a Friend
IV. Breath of God
V. Gloria
“One Jehovah” opens the work, imploring the Trinity for divine presence and mercy. The next three pieces contemplate how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each offer hope and help to mankind.
“Look at the Birds” is a setting of selected verses from Matthew 6, where believers are assured that, just as He feeds the birds and clothes the lilies, their heavenly Father will also meet their needs.
“What a Savior, What a Friend” revives a well-known hymn text that presents Jesus as a friend of sinners, a strength in weakness, and a help in sorrow.
Just as Christ did not leave us without a helper, the work transitions directly into “Breath of God,” which bids the Holy Spirit to come and impart new life, purify hearts, imbue with divine fire, and bring us undying to eternity.
The final movement is a triumphant “Gloria,” in which the congregation is invited to join the final stanza, singing Isaac Watts’ familiar hymn, “O God, our Help in Ages Past,” testifying of God’s faithfulness to His people in this life and into eternity.
It is my hope and prayer that these pieces will be an encouragement to all who hear. To God be the glory.
Marianne Forman
Comments