Et clamabant

Description

This piece celebrates the discovery of the twelfth-century Hawick missal fragment. From this fragment, I choose the chant Et clamabant, owing to its internal repetitions, inherent motivic possibilities, and emotive text. The text describes the peoples’ welcome of Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The initial excitement moves to a sense of sombreness, prefiguring the events of Easter week. I took the inspiration from the title of the Historic Scotland ‘Fragments’ project: the chant is a fragment of a fragment, as it starts in mid-sentence with the words ‘et clamabant’, which I used, through repetitions, imitation, and transpositions, to weave an elaborate polyphonic tapestry against which the remaining chant is stated.