Toivo Tulev (1958)
Summer Rain
Summer Rain (in Estonian Suvine Vihm) was composed for the 10th anniversary of the ensemble Vox Clamantis and premiered by them on November 24, 2006 in Basel. The text is a compilation, the main portion of which consists of the Advent hymn Rorate caeli. The repeated antiphon of the hymn is sung in Latin, the verses in English. A part of the text was written by myself using a brief quotation from Jesus in St. John’s Gospel, who says: “Sitio“, “I thirst“.
The music was conceived and composed contemplating on the words of Jesus tortured by thirst: “Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me“.
Written originally for solo voices, the music can be performed also by two separated choirs. If the balance of voices allows, the reiterated words by Jesus (“Sitio“) should be sung by a solo soprano. The high tenor notes may be sung by altos.
Toivo Tulev
Vocal Text
Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant justum.
The arithmetic of pain, calculation of destruction.
Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant justum.
The arithmetic of pain, of death, of children killed, of endless hatred.
Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant justum.
Calculation of destruction, of buried and of the unburied, of rain, endless rain, of death, of destruction, of pain
pain of the born and of the unborn.
Be not angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity: behold the city of thy sanctuary /Sitio/ is become a desert. Jerusalem, Jerusalem is desolate.
Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant justum / Sitio/
Be not angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity: behold we have sinned and we are become as one unclean, and we have all fallen as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast crushed us by the hand of our iniquity. /et nubes/
Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, / pluant justum/ and let the clouds rain the Just One. /Sitio, sitio, sitio/ Pain, pain of the born and of the unborn.
Drop down dew, ye heavens, drop down dew.
Text: Advent hymn Rorate caeli, Gospel of St. John (Jesus: I am thirsty, “Sitio”), and Toivo Tulev
Summer Rain
Toivo Tulev (2006)
Lord,
Lord,
Lord,