Jonathan Shaw

     Ah, the first of the choruses! Well, these were certainly interesting compositions. Originally, I was going to write two of these choruses a year, each one with an accompanying hymn using material that often recurred in the main chorus. I believe they were influenced by cantatas, but I remember wanting to devise my own ‘chorus’ format. Each chorus would explore different compositional techniques – this one being simple, homophonic and chordal. Similarly, each chorus would be written in a type of german bar-form, generally being AAB|AAB and would actually consist of two choruses that both use the overarching techniques associated with each composition. The 'Second Chorus' of each composition was to be in the dominant key. The supposed ‘final chorus’ section at the end of each composition is simply the coda using one of the most prominent phrases heard within the composition.

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      I had been (and still am!) enthralled by religious music which contains arguably some of the most beautiful works ever written, and thus I wanted to try my hand at writing for this extensive musical catalogue.

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     This chorus I wrote during my lunch hours at college as well, I recall that clearly as I showed a preview of it to one of my friends during one of those lunch hours. The lyrics here are some I wrote myself, as easily evident from their excessive fragrance of gorgonzola. The whole work is incredibly simplistic and cliché (I have made cliché a cliché in and of itself by now!), as you can quickly tell from bars 34 – 49. There are a lot of unusual harmonies that I would never use as this time of writing – oh how far my style has changed!