The fifth movement of The Divine Office, Sext, is programmatic not in any specific way except in mood. I wanted the piece to feel the tiredness of work while still moving on; in other words: perseverance. One of the aspects found in monastic life is the constancy of work, though in my work at St. Paul of the Cross Monastery, it is certainly in a more modern idiom. The beginning starts with a simple texture only to complicated by a more trio like texture, more work for the listener and performer alike.
The fourth movement in the Divine Office, Terce, is for me, programmatic of getting to work. I work at a Monastery and I know that I was thinking specifically of working the earth. While my Monastery does not necessarily incorporate an aspect of gardening, as in they do not produce any grown goods such as bread or beer, there is a work to the Passionists that seems to derive from either what the community needs or some form of spiritual direction found in the retreats.
Since the first two movements (here and here) were written first for an evening and the third movement is programmatic of the beginning of the day, this movement is getting work done. That being said, a trio seemed most appropriate to getting to work. Besides the finale, this is the second most challenging movement. As far as I know, Jacob Temple premiered this movement first.
The third movement in the Divine Officebegins the day. Prime is the “first” hour of the day, not to be confused with those first two movements that are in the middle of the night. The problem with the Offices is that they are originally based on approximate times in the cycle of the sun and moon. Prime is sunrise, hence the first hour.
I could go on about the origins of the office and how the Benedictines set the standard for their use in the Christian tradition, but more important to this work is the idea of opening the day. There is a clear programmatic sunrise in the music and artwork and I think the music and art present that idea well enough.
This is the first work written separate from the first two and is highly programmatic in that sense. To repeat an earlier compositional thought, it was the first of the latest compositional ideas to be portrayed. By that I mean, it was written closer to 2009 than the other earlier works. The influence of the Saint-Saens B major prelude is, well, all too transparent.