Prayer of St. Gregory (1946). Alan Hovhaness

Image via Wikipedia

I caught the last few minutes on the radio of the television program NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. There was apparently a feature on the new SF opera, The Bonesetter's Daughter. But the program ended with an (unfortunately regular) feature of showing photos of US soldiers who have died in service. Alan Hovhaness' Prayer of St. Gregory, from the opera Etchmiadzin, played in the background.

Wikipedia on St. Gregory:

St. Gregory's pontificate saw the development of the notion of private penance as parallel to the institution of public penance. He explicitly taught a doctrine of Purgatory where a soul destined to undergo purification after death because of certain sins, could begin its purification in this earthly life, through good works, obedience and Christian conduct, making the travails to come lighter and shorter.

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• pbs: bonesetter podcast.
• lala: wynton marsalis version of prayer of st. gregory. gerard schwarz symphonic version.

Comments

[kraig Grady]

Don't ask me how it happen, but somehow i have 24 Hovhaness
CDs. Way more than some of those i like more. But there is something endearing of this work just that it is so against the 'fashionism' that has taken over so much new music. Such personal statements are what we need more of. And like your example shows how useful his music is to so many.

[Dr. Allen]

The picture is of the wrong St. Gregory, I believe. Since the Hovhaness piece is from his Amermian-themed opera "Etchmiadzin," I believe that the "St. Gregory" referred to is St. Gregory the Illuminator, the patron saint of Armenia.