Variations on Iste Confessor
Composer: Henrique Coe
Year of composition: 2024
Video: World Premiere by Orquestra Sinfônica de Campinas on 15 August 2024 at Auditório da Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Unicamp (Brazil), conducted by Evan Harger
Program Note:
Variations on Iste Confessor, for orchestra, is a set of seven variations on a melody known as Iste Confessor. The author of this ancient melody is unknown, but the text of the Iste Confessor is set to this melody in Poitiers’ 1746 Vesperale, a book with music for Vespers, which are evening prayers from the Divine Office. Sometimes this melody is also called Rouen, as it might have its origin in this city in France.
It is not uncommon for a melody to be sung to different liturgical texts, as is the case with this melody. Yet its name usually remains the same. The first time I heard this melody was during the 2018 Sacred Music Symposium in Los Angeles, organized by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter and by Corpus Christi Watershed. We sang it to the Iste Confessor text during Solemn Vespers. It immediately became one of the participants’ favorite melodies.
With a duration of approximately 9 min, Variations on Iste Confessor starts with the tubular bells recalling a religious environment, followed by a solo cello playing the incipit, that is to say, the beginning of the melody. All cellos and violas continue to play the original melody in unison. Then, the first variation takes place on the full string section with a Medieval flavor. The second variation is based on the retrograde of the melody. The brass section leads the first half of the melody in a somewhat dramatic choir, followed by a more lighthearted string and woodwind combination for the second half. The brass returns and is now followed by pizzicato strings.
The third variation is based on the inversion of the intervals of the original melody. The bassoons play the melody with the Medieval sonorities of parallel fifths and octaves, while the other woodwinds color the variation with runs and offbeat interventions, in addition to the low strings’ pizzicatos. The fourth variation brings a great contrast to the piece. The tempo slows down and we hear the harmonics on the strings as in a meditative manner.
The fifth variation is a fugato, which starts with the return of the tubular bells and an answer by the glockenspiel. The tempo increases and the French horns, trombones and tuba continue the fugato idea, leading to the next two variations, which are the culmination of the piece. The sixth variation is an orchestral fortissimo played in a majestic way with the melody closer to the original. The last variation continues the orchestral fortissimo, now with the original melody as in a canon followed by a solemn harmonization, which is concluded by the full orchestra in octaves.
Variations on Iste Confessor was premiered by Orquestra Sinfônica da Unicamp, conducted by Evan Harger, on 15 August 2024 at Auditório da Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Unicamp in Campinas, Brazil, during the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival.