Kyrie done

At long last (and even though I reserve the right to tinker with it, on further examination to-morrow) I have practically finished a Kyrie for four-part choir unaccompanied.

The original motivation (months and months ago) was internal:  just felt inclined to set the text.  Over a period of weeks, I sketched probably three distinct openings, all of them imitative, but no two really similar.  At first, when I told Paul of a Kyrie in the works, he suggested that it might work for a Sine Nomine program.  In the event, the texture of Sine's coming season has changed;  and then my work on the piece took a back seat, as I thought of another piece or two, and since there seemed no (or a less) urgent call for such a piece.

Oh, at first Paul also asked if it might become a full Mass.  That was not my first thought, I was writing (as I thought) a stand-alone Kyrie.  But rather than reply to Paul with a no which might be artistically unnecessary, my own thought opened to the possibility down the road.  Perhaps later, if I may, I shall write the remainder of a full Mass . . . if that comes to pass, I think I expect to work on one number at a time, probably interspersed with other writing.

Now that the Kyrie is done (or very nearly done) I am back to work on the Cello Sonatina, to wrap that up for a young lady in Pennsylvania.