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Premiere of Dan Forrest’s in paradisum
On May 2nd, the 64-member University Symphonic Wind Band and combined choirs presented this year’s Commencement Concert — “Stories: Fictions and Truths” — before an audience of 7,000 people. The band was under the direction of Dr. Dan Turner, and the 108-voice choir was prepared under the supervision of Dr. Warren Cook.
The concert included the premiere of in paradisum, an exciting new work for winds and choir by Dr. Dan Forrest. You can listen to excerpts from the 11-minute live performance of in paradisum on the right side of this page.
About in paradisum
Regarding in paradisum, his first major composition for wind band and chorus, Dr. Forrest writes that it “takes its title more from Scripture than from the liturgical ‘In Paradisum’ Requiem movement. This setting uses diverse scriptural texts, which, though written thousands of years apart, all speak to mankind’s burning desire to glimpse the afterlife by revealing the compassionate character and precious promises of God to His people.
The opening bars present massive chords in a highly animated texture; these ‘pillars’ not only represent the unshakable truths which follow but also serve as a musical basis from which most of the rest of the piece is constructed.
The first main section sets the ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord…’ text as well as ‘I go to prepare a place for you…’
A second section (which uses portions of Revelation) uses the flatted seventh scale degree (taken from the opening ‘pillar chords’) to symbolize sorrow, pain and tears. This flatted seventh gives way, symbolically, to the raised seventh scale degree, picturing God’s tenderly ‘wiping away all tears.’ Eventually, the ‘pillar chords’ return, this time setting the one occurrence of the phrase ‘in paradise’ from Scripture (Christ’s words from the cross to the dying thief) that provides a thrilling glimpse into eternity.
Near the end of the piece, one more glimpse of the ‘tears’ idea appears, but it quickly (and again, symbolically) disappears into the settled rest of the closing section, which includes a ‘new song,’ calling from eternity ‘on high.’” At the end of the piece, handbells in the balcony echoed motives played by onstage handbells.
For information on purchasing a recording of the 2008 Commencement Concert, contact the Campus Store at 1.800.252.1927.