Commissioned by The Des Moines Choral Society, this song is loosely based on the Negro spiritual, “Let the Heaven Light Shine on Me.” There’s a percussive drive that accompanies elongated chant melody which also harmonized by the voices around it.
Lucis Creator Optime
SATB divisi, unaccompanied
Motet
Lucis Creator optime
lucem dierum proferens,
primordiis lucis novae,
mundi parans originem:
Qui mane iunctum vesperi
diem vocari praecipis:
tetrum chaos illabitur,
audi preces cum fletibus.
- St. Gregory the Great or St. Ambrose (attributed)
O Blest Creator of the light,
Who mak’st the day with radiance bright,
and o'er the forming world didst call
the light from chaos first of all;
Whose wisdom joined in meet array
the morn and eve, and named them Day:
night comes with all its darkling fears;
regard Thy people's prayers and tears.
- Poetic translation by John Mason Neale