CRUCIFIXUS (score & parts)

Antonio Lotti (c. 1667-1740) spent most of his life in the service of the church in Venice, with a brief period spent as a court composer in Dresden. It was whilst in Dresden that he composed his best-known work, the Crucifixus (which formed part of a larger work – the Credo in F).

Lotti’s style straddles that of the Baroque and Classical periods, but in many ways Crucifixus echoes more of the Renaissance style of earlier composers such as Palestrina. It begins with a solitary low entry upon which each part joins in turn, building up the texture, pitch and intensity with layers of searing suspensions, dissonances and resolutions. Lotti’s setting of the words describing Christ’s crucifixion and death conveys profound emotional intensity.

Lotti produced a number of versions of the Crucifixus but the most famous – for eight voices – is the one upon which Graham Sheen has based this arrangement for bassoon choir (eight bassoons and optional contrabassoon). He created the arrangement for a bassoon department concert in March 2018 at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Graham Sheen is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and became a professor there in 1979. He was principal bassoonist of both the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1983-2017) and, until 2016, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, having completed forty years’ service. He has appeared extensively as soloist with both orchestras and in April 2013 gave the première of a new bassoon concerto by Judith Bingham. He has recorded two solo CDs with Elizabeth Burley for SFZ Music. Graham is also a composer, editor and arranger with over sixty published works. He has written several graded albums and studies for bassoon and bassoon ensemble, including Mr Sheen’s Miscellany, a series of 13 pieces for the Trinity Guildhall Examination Board.

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