Choose the Light 1: DIES IRAE/CHOOSE THE LIGHT
Instrumentation as above Recording, download - 2.12MB Score, download - 12.23MB
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WORDS OF CHOOSE THE LIGHT Choose The Light´ is a phrase culled from the young people´s writing. It perfectly expresses the complex moral choices that face all of us, and the importance of seeking peace and reconciliation. Choose the Light begins with words of the medieval hymn, Dies Iræ, the Day of Wrath, and ends with a setting of lines based on the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation written after the Cathedral was bombed in 1940, which we use with the permission of the Cathedral. The shift from the aggressive and forceful music of the Dies Iræ to the tender and merciful Litany maps the move from anger to reconciliation and peace. Between them come the songs of the individual schools. The piece begins with the appeal to ´Choose the Light´ almost overwhelmed by the Dies Iræ, the thirteenth-century Latin hymn describing the Day of Judgement, when the last trumpet will summon souls before the throne of God, the saved will be delivered and the doomed cast into eternal flames. DIES IRÆ
Dies iræ! Dies illa [The day of wrath, that day] Solvet sæclum in favilla: [Will dissolve the world in burning coals] Teste David cum Sibylla! [As foretold by David and the sibyl!] Quantus tremor est futurus, [How great a tremor there will be,] Quando iudex est venturus, [when the judge comes,] Cuncta stricte discussurus! [to investigate everything strictly!] Tuba mirum spargens sonum [The trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound] Per sepulchra regionum, [through the tombs of the regions,] Coget omnes ante thronum. [will summon all before the throne.] Mors stupebit, et natura, [Death and nature will be stunned,] Cum resurget creatura, [when the human creation arises,] Iudicanti responsura. [to respond to the judge.] Liber scriptus proferetur, [The written book will be brought forth,] In quo totum continetur, [in which all is contained,] Unde mundus iudicetur. [from which the world shall be judged.] Iudex ergo cum sedebit, [When therefore the judge will sit,] Quid quid latet, apparebit: [whatever was hidden will appear:] Nil inultum remanebit. [nothing will remain unpunished.] Quid sum miser tunc dicturus? [What am I, miserable, then to say?] Quem patronum rogaturus, [Which patron to ask,] Cum vix iustus sit securus? [when [even] the just may hardly be sure?] Confutatis maledictis, [Once the cursed have been silenced,] Flammis acribus addictis: [sentenced to acrid flames:] Voca me cum benedictis. [Call thou me with the blessed.] Rex tremendæ maiestatis, [King of tremendous majesty,] Qui salvandos salvas gratis, [who freely saves those to be saved,] Salva me, fons pietatis. [save me, source of mercy.] Lacrimosa dies illa, [Tearful will be that day,] qua resurget ex favilla [on which from the ash arise] Iudicandus homo reus. [the accused people who are to be judged.] Huic ergo parce, Deus. [Spare them therefore, God.]
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