Preghiera Semplice (A Simple Prayer)
St Francis, to whom a prayer is attributed, was born in Assisi of Umbria (Italy) in the late 12th century. Dubbed the 'Umbrian Poverello' by the masses, the whole world found refuge in his heart - the poor, sick and fallen being the objects of his kindness.
'The Prayer of St Francis' first appeared in 1912, published anonymously in the French spiritual magazine La Clochette (the Little Bell) as 'Belle prière à faire pendant la messe' (A Beautiful Prayer to Say During the Mass). According to Father Kajetan Esser, author of the critical edition of St. Francis' writings, the Prayer for Peace is not one of the writings of the saint.
In 1916, the text was translated into Italian and published in the Vatican's daily newspaper. Then, in 1927, it was attributed to St Francis by French Protestant movement Les Chevaliers du Prince de la Paix (The Knights of the Prince of Peace). However, it was only during and ater World War II - a time of much political, social and artistic disillusionment - that this prayer began circulating widely as 'The Prayer of St. Francis'. Over the years it has gained a worldwide popularity with people of all faiths.
In this setting of the Prayer, Cayabyab uses musical tension and release to sensitize the audience to St. Francis' unwavering faith, and to the binary worlds of darkness and light, hatred and love, error and truth.
For the first half of the work, a tonic pedal in the bass line symbolizes the steady and unbending love of God from whom St. Francis draws strength. Set against this is the 'discordia', dissonances resulting from relatively chromatic lines that create friction against the pedal note, threatening to upset our faith in God. The notions of hatred, error and darkness are evoked via harmonic suspensions, and their opposites - love, truth and light - are represented by the resolution of these harmonies.
At the high point of the music, rising imitative cries of ad essere compreso overlap increasingly in stretto, perhaps corresponding to the urgent, pressing need of the masses to be understood. The following homophonic texture and falling melody represents St. Francis' returning empathy for them. The final section of the work finds the basses once more on the tonic pedal, with the other voices returning home to this note - steadfast in God's love.
Programme notes by Chan Zhuomin.
Jennifer Tham, ed.
