On the occasion of the premiere of the new project of my chamber choir, NEOVOCALIS, entitled I GOT A SONG! (of spirituals and gospel songs), I decided to write my own spiritual, I’m going through. It is not an arrangement, but a work of my own creation. The text, by the American hymn and song writer Herbert Buffum (1879-1939), is an allegory of life and conversion, of choosing the path of good over the path of evil.
The music I have written has features of the African-American spiritual, such as the mixture of scales (minor, Aeolian and blues scale), the dominant chord on the VI degree, syncopated rhythms, a descant in the re-exposition and the use of the antiphonal technique (facing female and male voices), all with touches of jazz and a funk beat in the background.
