Let All Mortal Flesh
F.165
An atmospheric a cappella setting of the Picardy hymn tune for solo soprano and SATB choir. Four verses build from a hushed, chant-like opening over sustained drones to full marcato power, with vivid text-painting that brings the ancient Liturgy of St. James to life.
Perusal Score
Program Notes
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence is based on the traditional text and the Picardy hymn tune for SATB (a cappella) choir, and is suitable for concert choirs and church choirs. The traditional hymn is by Gerard Moultrie (1829–1885), based upon the third-century Divine Liturgy of St. James.
From the Premiere
Premiered December 13 & 14, 2014 by the Cascadian Chorale, Seattle, WA; Gary D. Cannon, Artistic Director; Robin Wyatt-Stone, soloist (Baritone).
The program note by Gary D. Cannon:
Fraley imbues his compositions with formal structure, motivic unity, and harmonic consistency. His arrangement of the seventeenth-century hymn tune known as Picardy was written for the choir at the Church of the Holy Cross in Redmond. The first verse is intoned by a soloist over a meditative, medieval-like figure in the men’s voices. The third verse is especially notable for two elements of text-painting: Fraley depicts the “rank on rank [of] the host of heaven” with four-part canon, and “the darkness clears away” as each part arrives at silence. The basses sing the tune in augmentation (i.e., longer note values) for the final verse, aptly depicting the grandeur of “the six-winged seraph”. The choir’s final unison recalls the medieval darkness of the start.
Fraley imbues his compositions with formal structure, motivic unity, and harmonic consistency.
Performance Notes
Comfortable ranges, diatonic harmony, and a strophic hymn structure place Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence at Level 2 (Easy). The solo soprano and sustained drone textures add modest interpretive challenges suited to developing ensembles.
Notes for Directors
- The four verses build progressively: verse 1 (solo + drone, p), verse 2 (SATB homophony, mp), verse 3 (SATB with dynamic independence, mf), verse 4 (full marcato, f).
- Staggered breathing within sections is essential for the sustained drone passages in verse 1 (tenors hum for ~8 measures, basses for ~14 measures).
- Verse 3 features wave-like dynamic hairpins offset between parts by approximately one measure, requiring ensemble sensitivity to staggered crescendo/diminuendo.
- The solo is marked “freely, ad lib., chant-like”—requiring musical maturity and confidence. Although written in the soprano staff, the solo may be sung by any voice; the premiere featured a baritone soloist. A footnote in the score offers a tutti alternative.
- The only chromaticism is C# (raised leading tone) in the Alto at three cadence points—entirely standard for D minor.
- A brief B-natural in the Tenor (verse 4) introduces a fleeting Dorian inflection.
The Text
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth
Our full homage to demand.
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.
Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.
At His feet the six winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!
—Liturgy of St. James (3rd C.); tr. Gerard Moultrie (1829–1885)
About This Recording
Recorded by the Byrd Ensemble on Stories (2017), directed and produced by Markdavin Obenza.
Related Works
Christmas Carols
Brightest and Best · Let Us Be Merry · Lully Lullay · Of the Father’s love begotten · On this day earth shall ring