Anthony Gunadi
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Maker of the World

2023

Category

Chamber

Year

2023

Premiere

February 3, 2024, 2:30 PM

Duration

9'

Instrumentation

Piano trio

View Score PDF

Performance Video

This was composed for the Bedford Trio Composition Competition, with a cosmos-related theme. I turned to the traditional Gregorian chants of Mass XI called "Orbis Factor" which translates to "Maker of the World" (the title of this piece). I chose to use the Kyrie and the Sanctus as material for my piece because their meaning best suits the cosmos theme.

The first section has statements of the Sanctus in between seven waves, a reference to the seven days of creation in the book of Genesis. However, the seventh wave is different from all the others as God rested on the seventh day; it finally plays the whole Sanctus until where the words "heaven and earth are full of your glory" would be sung in the chant. Then, the piece bursts into the Kyrie, as if God's creation was praising Him and pleading for mercy. The piece ends with three waves but combined with the statements of the Sanctus and Kyrie.


For context, here are the text translations of the chants.


Sanctus:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of Hosts:
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.


Kyrie:

Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.


This piece is the winner of the 2023-24 University of Toronto Piano Trio Composition Competition, premiered by the Bedford Trio at the 2024 UTNMF. I am very honoured to be chosen as the winner among everyone's amazing submissions that I heard at the Bedford Trio's reading sessions. Thank you to the Bedford Trio, my teacher Prof. Norbert Palej, and the generosity of Alexandrina and Jeffrey Canto-Thaler for making this competition and performance possible.

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