Nativitas! – Fantasy on Perotin’s 12th century Alleluia (1996)

Large Wind Ensemble or Symphonic Band – 8 min.

[2fl+picc.2ob.2bn.3cl+Ebcl+bcl+cbcl.4sax(2asx.1tsx.1barsx). / 4hn.4tpt.4tbn(4=btbn).2euph.1tba. / 6perc(6=timp). / pno+org syn.]

Audio

Score (Free Download)

Program Note

Nativitas! is a fantasy on the 3-voice organum Alleluia: Nativitas composed by Perotin, one of the first music masters of Notre Dame Cathedral in medieval Paris. Actually, the musical style of organum is in itself a fantasy on Gregorian chant; Perotin’s organum is built over a plainchant Alleluia (which is played by the winds in octaves over driving drum rhythms in the middle of Nativitas!). In Perotin’s organum the lowest voice sings the chant at an extremely slow tempo creating monumental drones, while the top pair sings a lilting contrapuntal dance. Nativitas! uses great blocks of Perotin’s polyphony, juxtaposed and superimposed at multiple tempos and embroidered with some new materials echoing the Gothic style, celebrating this ecstatic, powerful sound from the 12th century.

A note regarding tempos:

Lovers of early music can hear performances of Gothic modal music performed at a variety of tempos: slow and grand, gently lilting, or fast and driving; Nativitas! presents all of these, juxtaposed and even occasionally superimposed. There are three basic tempos in this piece which have a 2:3:4 relationship, that is, the beat of the fast tempo (dotted eighth = 132) is twice as fast as the beat of the slow tempo (quarter = 66); the note values of these two tempos have the same speed — it is only the beat groupings which create the different tempos.  A “Moderately Fast” 3/4 tempo (quarter = 100) feels “half-again” as fast as the slow tempo; here also the note values have the same speed (the eighth always equals 200) — when these consistent eighths are grouped in dotted quarter beats the tempo is 66; when grouped in quarter beats the tempo is 100. To make things more interesting, there is another variety of the “Moderately Fast” tempo (beat = 100) which arises when the meter is 6/8 and dotted quarters get the beat  (dotted quarter = 100); the note values are here moving 150% faster than the other tempos (e.g., eighth = 300; notice that in this tempo, the eighth equals 200, the same speed of the eighths in the slow tempo — see the trombones in m. 308 ). Conductors and performers who practice making these tempo shifts while keeping their inner subdividing metronome constant to preserve the relationships will find that it’s a very useful musical discipline and a lot of fun!

Main tempos:

Slow (dotted quarter = 66)

Moderately Fast 3/4  (quarter = 100)

Moderately Fast 6/8  (dotted quarter = 100)

Fast (dotted eighth = 132)

To shift from “Slow” to “Fast” subdivide the dotted quarters into pairs of  dotted eighths before making the shift.

To shift from “Slow” to “Md. Fast 3/4” keep eighths constant while shifting from groups of 3 to groups of 2.

To shift from “Md. Fast 3/4” to “Md. Fast 6/8”  keep beats constant while shifting subdivision from groups of 2 to groups of 3.