Come, Holy Ghost
(O komm, Heiliger Geist) (2015)Psalm 104 and early Christian prayer texts (G)
3(III=picc).1.3(III=bcl).2(II=dbn)-4.4Wagner tubas.3.3(I,II=tbtrbn).1-perc(5):5timp/crot/bar.chimes/SD/2BD/5susp.cyms/2tam-t/Javanese.gongs/glsp/marimba-str
Abbreviations (PDF)
Sikorski
‘Komm, Heiliger Geist’ is the preliminary version of the finale of a large oratorio “On Love and Hate” commissioned by the Staatskapelle Dresden and was premiered in Tallinn on 14 October 2016.
The vocal-symphonic work “O Come, Holy Spirit” for soprano, bass, mixed choir and orchestra based on medieval prayer texts was composed in 2015 and is dedicated to the conductor Andres Mustonen. The world premiere took place on 18 April 2015 in the Dresden Frauenkirche, performed by the soloists Sophie Karthäuser and Georg Zeppenfeld with the MDR Radio Orchestra and the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under the direction of Andres Mustonen, who has commented on the work as follows: “A music between heaven and earth; for Sofia, the human soul with its connection above is always at the centre. It is a rare thing that music is so close to a higher sphere.” The work was also created out of Gubaidulina‘s concern over the events in world politics, especially in view of the crisis in the Ukraine; it should be
understood as an appeal for peace. Eva Katharina Klein wrote in the programme booklet for the world premiere of the work that “the breath of the Holy Spirit forms the programmatic idea behind Gubaidulina’s “O Come, Holy Spirit”. Symbolic sonic figures of inhaling and exhaling become denser up to the climax of the collectively ‘breathing’ orchestra.” The composer has recourse to the Pentecost anti-
phon in a modern German translation.