Matej Kastelic – O ADONAI | KGBL Chamber Choir

O ADONAI for mixed choir (SATB div.) a cappella Text: in Latin: Antiphon for Vesepers O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm. composed: October 4, 2015, rev. March 2016 Commissioned by: Ambrož Čopi and the Choir of the Ljubljana Conservatory for Music and Ballet, Slovenia LIVE RECORDING: Video provided by JSKD RS Slovenian choral competition Naša pesem (Our song), Maribor Union hall, 23.4.2016 Ambrož Čopi, conductor About the composer: One of the youngest Slovenian composers Matej Kastelic (b. 1994) is currently finishing his Master’s degree at Academy for Music in Ljubljana. He composes mainly choral music, though he was writing music for the theatre in the last year. His musical language is very penetrating, exposing the highlights of the lyrics, which he chooses very attentively. However young, Kastelic’s music has already been performed worldwide – at festivals and competitions of choral music. The composer on his work: The composition O Adonai was composed for the cycle "O Antiphons", on Amborž Čopi's initiative. The thematic material is based on Gregorian chant, which has five phrases. I kept the original unison melody and enriched it with imitations and augmentations. Each phrase has its own technique - according to the nature of the lyrics. Because I wanted to expand the sonority of the opening bass line, I added altos - singing the echo in fifths. When singing "in the burning bush", we can hear 4-voice imitation in thirds, after, at "salvation" there is 4-voice imitation in seconds, that fuse into unison singing in the last phrase. At the end we hear repetition of the "echoing fifths" and I finish with multiple augmentation of the main theme - fading into a sole tone.  Slovenian text and English translation prepared by Rebeka Dobravec Design and editing for youtube channel prepared by Matej Kastelic Conservatory of Music and Ballet Ljubljana, Slovenia / Konservatorij za glasbo in balet Ljubljana (http://www.kgbl.si) Sheet Music Published by Astrum Music Publication, Slovenia-Europe (www.astrum.si) Copyright © 2020 by KGBL Chamber Choir (https://www.choirkgbl.eu)