For God So Loved the World (download)

Description

For God So Loved the World

SATB (divisi), unaccompanied
4′ duration
2009
Text: John, 3:16–17
Premiere—2013, by Kantorei, Axel Theimer, cond.
8 pages

Text

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;
but that the world through him might be saved.

John, 3: 16–17, King James Version

Program Note

For God so Loved the World is one of a series of settings of well-known, well-loved texts, composed as refreshment between larger works. Jesus’s words to Nicodemus in John 3:16 is one of the cardinal texts of the Church, but I haven’t found many treatments of it, though one thinks of John Stainer’s famous 1887 version in the oratorio The Crucifixion. The Twin-Cities based chamber choir Kantorei, conducted by Axel Theimer, gave the premiere in 2013. Kantorei has premiered a number of my works, including Light Upon the Water, Three Psalms and Sing to Me. The work was composed in 2009.