FACE ANTHEM

for choir, organ, violin and sampler (2024)

FACE ANTHEM is a simple, bright piece born out of fragments of Handel’s coronation anthem ‘Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened.’ Short cells of music repeat and rotate in different configurations, joyfully, mechanically, like a dance. I pictured the choir a bit like an AI, randomly generating sequences out of recycled Baroque parts - stalling, glitching, figuring itself out in real time, happy but unsure why.

Original text:

Let thy hand be strengthened and thy right hand be exalted.
Let justice and judgment be the preparation of thy seat!
Let mercy and truth go before thy face.
Let justice, judgment, mercy and truth go before thy face.

Allelujah.

Commissioned by London Handel Festival and first performed by National Youth Choir and members of Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Sofi Jeannin on 6 April 2024.