Category:   ETHNIC MUSIC
Composer:   Jorge Cordoba Valencia
Arranger:   NA
Publisher:   earthsongs
Edition:   S-173
Voicing:   SATB div
Setting:   A Cappella

Reviewer:   

Kathy Romey
University of Minnesota 2003
R&R Chair Ethnic Music

Mexican composer Jorge Cordoba sets William Blake’s poem in a multi-meter, rhythmic work which utilizes a harmonic language of inverted major-minor chords with added 7th and 9ths. This dramatic prayer highlights the four ideas of the poem: mercy, pity, peace and love, through ostinato, recitative-like patterns in an extended vivo framed by a majestic opening and meditative closing lento.