Improvisation on the Introit for the Fifth Sunday of Easter (Cantate Dominum Canticum Novum)

Todd Tarantino, organ
Ix Organ
St Cecilia RC Church, Englewood, NJ
2 May 2021: 1pm

Cantáte Dómino cánticum novum, allelúia:
quia mirabilia fecit Dóminus, allelúia:
ante conspéctum gentium revelávit iustítiam suam,
allelúia, allelúia.

Sing to the Lord a new song, alleluia;
for the Lord has accomplished wondrous deeds, alleluia;
he has revealed his justice in the sight of the Gentiles,
alleluia, alleluia.
(Psalm 97:1-2)

This one was difficult. I was feeling in a little bit of a rut and the meandering chant didn't help one bit. It's squarely in D dorian with the ficta Bb and so squarely that it's hard to harmonize it any other way. An escape in these circumstances can be to avoid triadic harmony and opt for quartal or quintal harmony but that wasn't working for me. The alleluia alternations were similarly complicating, so I'm not so happy with how it turned out, but you've got to take the good with the bad - I'm aiming in all this to be accepting that things are what they are when they are.

In my 6pm improv I tried to work a repeating bassline, but here I leaned toward something more grandiose. It takes some time to figure out what it is and ends a bit too abruptly.