A Thanksgiving to God, for His House, motet

• Composer: Dominick Argento
• Period: Modern (1910-1949)

Review

These are three attractive and practical a cappella choruses on religious poetry by one of America's finest vocal music composers. Although written over a 15-year period, they have a similarity of style and mood that make them serviceable as a set. Each is from three-and-a-half to four minutes long.

In addition, they share another unifying factor: They all originated as music for the Plymouth Congregational Church of Plymouth, MN, and were written as gifts to the choir of that church and their choirmaster, Philip Brunelle.

Dominick Argento was born in 1927 in York, PA. His earliest musical interest was in Gershwin's music and in other music with a strong song-based character. After studies at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore (graduating in 1951 with a master's degree in 1954), he has made most of his career in the Minneapolis, MN, area, teaching at the University of Minnesota and co-founding in 1963 the Center Opera Company, now Minnesota Opera. He is one of the most successful and prolific of American opera and vocal music composers. Although he sometimes uses serial procedures, his music is nearly always tonal, grateful on the voice and the ear, and Romantic in character.

Philip Brunelle's Plymouth Congregational Church has undertaken an important music festival, the Plymouth Music Series, which frequently performs Argento's music.

The first of the three motets, A Thanksgiving to God, for his House is a warmly reverent chorus. Argento wrote it as a thank-you gift in honor of Brunelle's tenth anniversary as the organist and choirmaster. It is a setting of a poem by Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674). There is a striking effect near the end where a portion of the choir sings the traditional tune of the Doxology ("Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow") as a descant to the main melody.

In 1988 Argento wrote a piece for Brunelle to play as organist. Prelude for Easter Dawning is the composer's only work for organ solo and is based on an old hymn tune known as "Ellacombe." Having written it, Argento went on to write this choral song as a companion to the prelude. Accordingly, it uses both the Ellacombe hymn tune and Argento's original music for the prelude. The song's text is by Richard Crashaw (1613 or thereabouts -- 1649).

The final motet in the publication is called To God and is a setting of another verse by Robert Herrick. It is subtitled "In Memoriam M.B." The subject of the memorial was Marlene Baver, Deputy-Organist-Choirmaster of the Plymouth church. The setting is not strictly speaking an a cappella work since over the final lines of the work an offstage trumpet plays. Choirmaster Brunelle explains this effect, which is deeply felt and highly touching music. Ms. Baver was also a fair amateur trumpet player. Whenever the church used music with three trumpet parts, "Marlene always played third....This envoy to her concludes with a single trumpet part (not too high!) -- a final moment for third trumpet alone." ~ Joseph Stevenson, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
Dominick Argento: An American Romantic	1998
Over the River & Through the Woods	2004

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