Meditation

Meditation was commissioned by soprano Tamara Matthews for her 2006 faculty recital at Furman University in Greenville, SC.  The work juxtaposes the text of the Magnificat, Mary's song of praise in the New Testament, alongside text from St. Catherine of Siena.  The piece was originally conceived as an antiphonal work with one of the SSAA quartets placed in the front of the performance space alongside the soprano singing St. Catherine's text and the other SSAA quartet placed in the rear of the performance space alongside the soprano singing the scriptural text.  As the two texts converge toward the end of the work, the singers in the rear process through the performance space to join the other singers at the front of the space, mirroring the movement in the text with a change in physical placement.