commissioned by Schola Cantorum of Oxford and first performed in 1991 (unaccompanied double-choir: SSAATTBB + SSAATTBB); new version (for SSAATTBB & organ) broadcast in 1996; duration: c.8'

This is the setting of an English translation of a text appointed for Good Friday in the Roman Catholic Liturgy. The antiphon itself is only used on this occasion in the Roman Catholic Liturgy and is known as the Ter Sanctus; it appears very frequently, however, as the Trisaggion in the Greek Orthodox Liturgy. The musical material for this prayer to God the Holy Trinity is based on a melodic triad, its inversion and retrograde. This is heard in canon at the fifth and the tenth sung by both choirs at the very end. A part of this melody is heard with a pedal effect at the end of each verse as both choirs join together for a brief crescendo. The chords that result from this effect (three in total) are used in the opening antiphon sung by the second choir to decorate the simple chant which returns in equal note values in the soprano over the final canon.

The seven verses are written as if Jesus were speaking to Israel; each verse contrasting the mercy of the Lord towards Israel and their rejection of Him. More importantly, and particularly in the context of the Christian liturgy, these words should be considered as the Lord speaking to the Church and calling her, the spiritual Israel, to repentance. Old Testament events are used as symbols of deliverance from bondage to sin, the giving of new life in baptism and communion, and the crowning hope of resurrection to eternal life. Each verse is chanted by the first choir to one chord, freezing the emotion which is then released in the last few words with another chord that pulsates and dies away. These chords are in seven parts and during the course of the piece each part moves upwards through the interval of a major seventh at different speeds with the result that the final chord of the seventh verse is the same as the opening chord of the first verse, transposed up a major seventh.

While the verses become gradually louder and more insistent, the antiphon sung by the second choir starts fortissimo, rather boldly, after the first verse, and after each subsequent verse becomes quieter and more harmonically complex. The music is derived from a condensed version of the antiphon's triadic melody (11 different pitches without repetition). Less and less of the text of the antiphon is set until only the word "sinners" remains. Then the first choir sings the entire antiphon for the first time as if Jesus, the only mediator between God and Man, is offering up the prayer of the Church Himself. After a silence both choirs join together to sing the final antiphon.