Franz Liszt
Fugue on the Chant Rorate Coeli
for String Orchestra
Franz Liszt
Fugue on the Chant Rorate Coeli
for String Orchestra
- Instrumentation String Orchestra
- Composer Franz Liszt
- Editor William J. Bullock
- Series Southern Music Strings
- Edition Score and Parts
- Publisher Southern Music Company
- Order no. 01868232
Description:
Liszt opens his sprawling oratorio Christus with this straightforward instrumental fugue. Marked with the opening words of Isaiah 45:8: Rorate coeli (Heavenly Dew Drops), the fugue adapts the opening musical phrase of the antiphon (chant) on this text for its subject. It thereby gives expression to the longing of the biblical patriarchs and prophets for the coming of righteousness through the advent of the Messiah. The fugue climaxes in measures 41-42, where violins and violas descend with sequential repetitions of the subject's only major third, itself descending.