In That Day

Composed and conducted by Jacob Whitchurch.
From the program notes:
In That Day was a total accident on my part. In the summer of 2023, I was busily working on The Creation Symphony and, after writing several movements worth of music, was looking to write a grand finale to finish off the symphony. Up to this point, I had been using text from the Hebrew bible as the libretto (lyric text) for the SATB choir and had learned through trial and error that I needed to utilize recitations by a native speaker to get the correct pronunciations and stresses. I stumbled across the text of Isaiah 12 and felt that it had a good message to wrap up the symphony; what I didn't expect was what happened when I began listening to the recitation. Rather than simply reading the text like the other recitations I'd researched, the orator began to sing a haunting folk melody that immediately captured my imagination. Several hours later, I found a rough version of this piece written out. Although In That Day wasn't the grand finale I was looking for, it immediately became one of my favorite movements. Eventually, I hope to premiere The Creation Symphony, but in the meantime, I'm excited to have at least a small part of it put out into the world. In this version, I reorchestrated the SATB choral parts into other instruments in the orchestra with the hope of having each musician approach the melody in the same way a vocalist or orator would. The message of the piece is simple: a day will come when we no longer have to endure trials and tribulations and can sing praises to the LORD JEHOVAH. One aspect of the folk melody I loved was that it utilized the maqam hijaz scale mode - a harmonic minor scale that, while emphasizing the angst of the augmented 2nd, ultimately resolves on the more major-sounding 5th scale degree. Certainly a fitting melody for the message of this piece. Special thanks to Kelsie Cannon for her help on the pronunciation and translation/transliteration of this text. -J.M. Whitchurch