Kyrie Eleïson
for 18 Female and 18 Male Voices a cappella
1968, 12:00
Kyrie Eleïson is written on a free selection of texts of the catholic Ordinary, including an invocation of Mary, protectress of Chestochowa, in Polish. In correspondence with the text, the score is divided into four parts, A to D.
The distribution of texts is as follows:
A (bars 1-39) Christe Eleïson
B (bars 40-59) Kyrie Eleïson
C (bars 59-73) Christe Eleïson; laudamus te, benedicimus te, glorificamus te.
D (bars 73-111) Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis, quoniam tu solus sanctus, Kyrie; — i ty co jasnej bronisz Chestochowy (you who protects the radiant Chestochowa), suscipe deprecationem nostrum).
Kyrie Eleïson won first prize in the 1969 Gaudeamus Festival in Bilthoven, The Netherlands, but has never been performed. I consider it as one of my major works. It will have to wait for a risk-taking and expert conductor.