Mark Foster Music
35022500, SATB divisi with mezzo-soprano and baritone solos, and organ, $11.99
Date released: 2005

Te Deum is Mark’s first large work for oratorio chorus, soloists and orchestra. Using the traditional text from the Book of Common Prayer, Protestant Episcopal Church in U.S.A., Hayes has set this text in English but also incorporates sections in Latin. This work is just under 14 minutes in length and features solos for mezzo-soprano and baritone. Stylistically, this work reflects Hayes’ classical training with expansive choral lines reminiscent of Brahms, modal chant-like sections, imitative writing, and a lyric fugal section that wonderfully expresses the closing phrases, “O Lord in Thee have I trusted; never let me be confounded.” Hayes uses a rich dynamic palette, with sections that are boldly fully-voiced as well as whisper-soft and meditative. He incorporates a dynamism and energy through his use of driving ostinato in the orchestra and angular, rhythmic vocal lines. This work is suitable for collegiate choirs, festival choruses and church choirs. Consider programming this non-seasonal work as an alternate to one of the traditional masterworks.