Ave Maria was composed for the University of Kansas Choirs, and dedicated with appreciation to Simon Carrington (Kings Singers). It was premiered by the Oread Consort at Edington Priori Church in Wiltshire, England in May of 1997. The Gregg Smith Singers brought new life to this work at the 2000 Adirondack Festival of American Music in Saranac Lake, and followed with a recording on the Living Artist series. This piece was inspired by Gy� Ligetis setting of Lux Aeterna (1966), as well as by Giuseppe Verdis Ave Maria, the scala enigmatica armonizzata a Quattro voci (1898). It is shaped by a series of breath-like harmonic swells leading to climactic homophonic statements of the text, with strident voice pairings yearning for resolution. New York writer Watson Bosler describes the work as an iridescent wash of color as an intricate web of interrelated melodic and rhythmic themesThis Ave hymns not the sugar-water Virgin of Gounod or Scott, but rather the powerful Goddess Yeats depicts: The Roman Empire stood appalled:/ It dropped the reins of peace and war/ When that fierce virgin and her Star/ Out of the fabulous darkness called.

Voicing:

SATB divisi, a cappella