Misericordias Domini
for unnacompanied 6-part mixed choir
Text: Psalm 89 (88) anonymus prayers
I composed Misericordias Domini for unaccompanied choir in 2012, in my study not far from the famous Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Cracow. The final version of this work was completed in 2018. Besides the titular Latin words, I drew on texts in various languages from the sanctuary’s archives – anonymous entries made by visitors with thanks and requests. I was fascinated by that multilingual community of strangers who had pilgrimaged to this place at various times from all over the world to find spiritual soothing and a ray of hope in their often difficult everyday lives.
For years I have also been inspired by a passage from Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita:
‘I’m talking about charity’, Woland explained his words without taking his fiery eye off Margarita.
‘It sometimes crawls in quite unexpectedly and insidiously through the narrowest of cracks.’**
Those words perhaps form a suitable ‘counterpoint’ to the work.
Wojciech Widłak
translated by John Comber
* M. Bułhakow, Mistrz i Małgorzata, tłum. I. Lewandowska, M. Dąbrowski, MUZA SA, Warszawa 2008, s. 384–385.
** M. Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, tr. Hugh Aplin (Richmond, 2018), 283.
- Series: CORO - sacred
- ISMN 979-0-2740-2704-9
- Language of edition: pol, eng
- Number of pages: 20
- Cover: softcover
- No. of edition: 1
- Published: 2020
- Type: study score
- Size: A4 vertical (210x297 mm)
