I Give You a New Commandment

Use: General, Holy Week
Required Resources: SATB choir
Language: English

Perfect for Holy Thursday: the "Mandatum" text, a cappella SATB, lush harmonies; medium difficulty. I Give You a New Commmandment is what every choir director needs for the Foot Washing or Offertory at the Mass of the Lord's Supper.

From John 13:34 we hear: "I give you a new commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you." And from I Corinthians 13:13, "Faith, hope, and love, let these endure among you, and the greatest is love."

Dr. Harold Owen is Professor Emeritus of composition, musicianship, and music history and former chairman of the department of composition at the University of Oregon School of Music. In addition he has been the director of the University Collegium Musicum and the University Consort, a faculty ensemble devoted to the performance of early music. He is the author of numerous textbooks on theory and composition. Dr. Owen has been choirmaster at Saint Mary's Episcopal Parish, Eugene, Oregon, for more than twenty years, where he established the Philharmonia Sacra Concerts devoted to the performance of liturgical music. He has written a large number of works for the church, many of which have been published, including anthems, organ works, two books of trumpet descants to familiar hymns, and a collection of hymn harmonizations.