Fantasia "Tota pulchra es"

Score available here: https://partitura.org/index.php/auke-jongbloed-fantasia-tota-pulchra-es-op-11

"Tota pulchra es" is an old Catholic prayer, written in the fourth century. It is one of the five antiphons for the psalms of Second Vespers for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The title means "You are completely beautiful" (referring to the Virgin Mary). The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is the solemn celebration of belief in the Immaculate

Five years ago I wrote, on request two compositions based on the melody and I wrote two fragments that can be heard here: https://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/36644 and here: https://www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/36645

Though I quite liked the both fragments, I also felt they were not really suitable as stand alone pieces. They were more like fragments of a larger composition. So I decided to write 'something' to form a middle segment of that larger composition and use the existing fragments to build the outer parts around that middle segment. Sadly, a good idea for that middle segment never came and I forgot about the project.

Until a few weeks ago. As inspiration never came spontaneously, I thought I'd try and sit down and just jot down the first ideas that came to mind and try and build something out of that. Surprisingly, that worked quiwell. The first ideas provided enough material to work with and after several hours of work the middle part was ready. Lesson learned: don't wait for inspiration, just start sketching.

And now I consider the composition finished. A bit late for this year's Immaculate Conception. Perhaps someone can make good use of it next year. Since I put some serious effort in the composition, the score is available for a modest fee.