Hymnus pro gratiarum actione (Te Deum) Romana Palestra

Abstract

In the thanksgiving hymn "Te Deum" Roman Palester honoured the election of a Polish cardinal to the papacy. The composition was ready by the tenth of June 1979 and had a suitable dedication. The composition is not the only work by Palester with a religious content. Among other works one can mention "Requiem" (1947) and "Missa brevis". "Hymnus pro gratiarum actione" was written for 3 choirs and 3 instrumental groups: for brass instruments, for percussion instruments of a definite pitch and for those of an indefinite pitch. One can discern reference to the polychoral style of the Venetian school and to the performance style of Baroque. The composer also draws on various musical traditions: the Gregorian chant, the polyphony of the ancient masters, and the great symphonic forms of the XIXth century. The base of the sound organization is dodecaphonic technique which is used, however, in a very specific way. In the composition there is no established order of the sounds in the form of a series or of a theme. A linear structure prevails. The composer uses various systems passing from the single voices of choir through various combinations of voices coming from two and three choirs until the work reaches a full tutti. In addition to the technique of imitation and the double counterpoint, the base uses a free linearism (polyphony) which depends on the conducting of the independent voices with differentiated rhythms and with an individual interval structure. The composer sets the polyphonic texture against the homophonie, homorhythmic texture, very often with the antiphonlc response of the choirs. The architectonics of the composition is strictly correlated with the text of the hymn, but results prymarly from the autonomous laws of the musical formation. "Te Deum" is a one-part composition with an internal division (marked in the score) into 3 segments: I. Te Deum laudamus, II. Tu Rex glorlae, Christe, 3. Salvum fac. The work passes directly from one part to another, these parts being connected by the instrumental sections and only after the second part is there a short ceasura provided. In this composition we can observe the influence of two kinds of form: the cyclic form with a slow lyric part in the middle and the sonata form which can be seen by the existence of two contrasting episodes in the first part and a recapitulation in the third part.