(Our Father), Op. 14, is a sacred

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

Maurice Duruflé Maurice Gustave Duruflé (; 11 January 1902 – 16 June 1986) was a French composer, organist, musicologist, and teacher. Life and career Duruflé was born in Louviers, Eure in 1902. He attended Rouen Cathedral Choir School from 1912 to 1918, ...

, setting the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...

in French as a sacred

. It was published for voice and organ in 1977, and for a four-part choir

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

in 1978, by

Éditions Durand Éditions Durand are a music publishing company of French origin, among the most important in the field of classical music, which includes three previously independent publishers: * Éditions Durand — the oldest of the three companies — estab ...

. Durufle dedicated the composition to his wife, Marie-Madeleine Duruflé. It is his last published composition, and his only work suitable for congregational singing.

History

Duruflé, who was organist in at

Saint-Étienne-du-Mont Saint-Étienne-du-Mont () is a church in Paris, France, on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in the 5th arrondissement, near the Panthéon. It contains the shrine of St. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris. The church also contains the tombs of ...

in Paris and also director of the Gregorian Institute of Paris, set the

in French as for liturgical use. It was a commission from a priest at Saint-Etienne. It is his only work suitable for congregational singing, as requested by the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

. He regretted the decline of

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed main ...

in Latin which had influenced his earlier compositions. He wrote first a version for unison male voices with organ, then a transcription for a four-part choir

. Both versions were published by

, dedicated to his wife, Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, the unison version in 1977 and the choral version in 1978. It became his last published composition, which appeared also with an English translation.

Music

The melody of is chant-like, although not original Gregorian chant. Like chant, it is in free motion and with narrow ambitus, and the beginning uses the same notes as the chant melody. It is written in reverential approach to the prayer, with a subtle treatment of

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

used to interpret the significant text in

homophony In music, homophony (;, Greek: ὁμόφωνος, ''homóphōnos'', from ὁμός, ''homós'', "same" and φωνή, ''phōnē'', "sound, tone") is a texture in which a primary part is supported by one or more additional strands that provide ...

. The composition is in

F major F major is a major scale based on F, with the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has one flat.Music Theory'. (1950). United States: Standards and Curriculum Division, Training, Bureau of Naval Personnel. 28. Its relati ...

, mostly in triple meter but shifting to 2/4 time when the natural flow of the text demands it. The four-part setting is accessible, and the unison version can also be performed by children's choirs.

References

Cited sources

* * * * *

External links

''Notre Père''
French National Library
''Notre Père''
musicanet.org
"''Notre Père'', Op. 14"

MusicBrainz MusicBrainz is a MetaBrainz project that aims to create a collaborative music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the CDDB, Compact Disc Database (CDDB), a database for ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Notre Pere Compositions by Maurice Duruflé Motets Catholic music 1977 compositions 1978 compositions Lord's Prayer Compositions in F major