Salve Regina (Latry)


Salve Regina is a composition for organ by Olivier Latry, a meditation of the Latin hymn "Salve Regina". Each of the seven movements reflects one line of the hymn which can optionally be sung in chant before the related movement. The work was first performed on 9 October 2007 by the composer at Notre Dame in Paris, recorded there and published by.

History

Latry, organist at Notre Dame in Paris, is known as an improviser. He realised the idea of commenting the Gregorian chant of the Marian hymn by organ music first in improvisation in Lawrence at the University of Kansas in 1999 in the final concert of a conference of church music. The composer performed the work first at the Grand Orgue of Notre Dame on 9 October 2007, with singer Emmanuel Bouquet and the Maîtrise Notre Dame de Paris. It was published by. Latry recorded it along with other contemporary compositions related to Mary. He played the United States premiere at St. Ignatius Loyola in New York City on April 15, 2009.

Structure and music

Each of the seven movements reflects one line of the hymn which can optionally be sung in chant before the related movement. The singing can be performed by a female or male soloist, a schola or a children's choir. The movement are contrasting in character.
The work takes about 23 minutes to perform. Latry expresses the different emotions of the calls to Mary by markings which focus more on the mood than the tempo. Salve Regina has the liberty of Gregorian chant. Vita dulcedo is calm. Ad te clamamus is an exclamation, hammering and wild. Ad te suspiramus appears dark and relentless. Eia ergo is profound. Et Jesum is a slow procession. The last call O clemens has no marking. It ends like bells. The composer wrote in his program notes for the US premiere of Christians in "moments of deep faith, joy, doubt, incomprehension, despair, rebellion, hope, bliss and beatitude", expressed in the reflections of the invocation to Mary. The reviewer of a performance on 7 November in St. Bonifatius, Wiesbaden, interpreted by Gabriel Dessauer, described the work as surprisingly retrospect and noted that it made the listener feel the complete cosmos of humanity, including the cruelty and violence, from which to be freed the prayer requests.