O Magnum Mysterium is a setting of the Christmas responsory for a cappella SATB choir, dedicated to Dave and Nina Bergeron. The text has drawn many composers, Victoria, Poulenc, and Lauridsen among them. Writing my own meant deciding how to answer settings I admire. I devised an original theme in G minor, slow and hushed at the opening, befitting a text that contemplates the mystery of animals witnessing the newborn Lord in the manger. At Beata Virgo (“blessed is the virgin”), the music introduces a contrasting F minor theme, setting apart the text’s turn toward the Virgin who bore Christ. The Alleluias return the harmony to G minor using the opening theme, but much quicker this time, and marked gioioso. Calls and responses between the women’s and men’s voices brighten to G major before closing in B-flat, the home key’s relative major, signifying an opening out into joy after the work’s meditative beginning.

Here are the Latin and English texts: