"Non intres in judicium": Choral Fugue in C-sharp minor.

Just as was the case with the previous movement I composed for this Requiem in the works, "Libera me, Domine", the subject came first and I then had to find a suitable liturgical text that matched the prosodic and accentual patterns implied by its rhythm and melody.

Since today's current date, October 10th, has been the World Day Against the Death Penalty for over 2 decades now, I figured it was quite a reasonable occassion to post a Requiem movement as I just finished it.

The picture to the left of the thumbnail was originally taken from a sarcophagus found at the Abbey of St. Clement at Casauria, Pescara, Italy. Its text, whose incipit serves as the main feature of this composition, belongs to Psalm 143 "Absolution of the Dead".

Youtube video link:

Choral Fugue Non intres in judicium in C-sharp minor.pdf

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Fugax Contrapunctus

You do an excellent job here of exploring interesting harmonic ideas and making each line its own interesting melody. I wonder how this would sound with some longer note values as either a pedal in the bass or a slowly ascending or descending line to break up the texture a bit? (This would get your text out of sync between parts and less easily understandable, so maybe that's not something you want to explore). If you have a minute, could you add the full text and translation to your original post to help us all keep track as we listen without needing to open an extra browser window of our own and toggle back and forth? This sounds great, and looks like it would be interesting to sing!