Thea Musgrave Journey into Light

The following note by the composer Thea Musgrave appeared in the programme for the AAM’s premiere performances of the work in 2006.

This work was commissioned by the Academy of Ancient Music as a possible companion piece to Mozart’s motet for soprano and orchestra, ‘Exsultate, jubilate’, and the decision was quickly made to write something as a complete contrast. The poems chosen — one anonymous, from the early sixteenth century; the other two by the famous Scottish poet William Dunbar (1460?–1513?) — describe the promise of salvation after life’s dark passage. Each of the work’s three movements — titled Lament, Prayer and Contemplation — echo this thought in the poems ‘In celum, ther is joy with Thee’, ‘A short torment for infinite gladness’ and ‘Since erdly joy abides never, Work for the joy that lastès ever’. Thus in each poem the poet can overcome the fear of his inevitable death with the certainty of salvation: while this work has its ‘dark’ moments, the overall mood is one of calmness and peace.

As with the words there are several musical motives that link the three songs. The musical motive for the refrain ‘Terribilis mors conturbat me’ in the first macaronic poem (also a salute to Mozart since the ‘Exsultate’ is in Latin) returns a little higher and more despairingly in each verse until the last verse where it is played a whole octave higher. This motive reappears (played mostly by the oboes) in the last song but now the pitch of each repeat goes in reverse; that is, from high to low. The famous motive of the Gregorian chant Dies Irae, representing death, is used to accompany the prayer of the second song. A musical motive for the joy of Paradise appears in the second song ‘A free choice given to Paradise or Hell’. There is also a ubiquitous three-note chordal cluster which is used to illustrate the words: sometimes as a colour, and sometimes as articulation. The bird of the last song ‘Thus sang ane bird with voice upplane’ becomes several birds (oboes) singing in A major, but with a D sharp, thus the Lydian mode. However the refrain of this poem ‘All erdly joy returns in pane’ is in F major. This alternation of F major / A major tonalities is a structural feature which is, of course, heralded by Mozart in his ‘Exsultate, jubilate’.

This work is thus written in homage to Mozart.