Paweł Łukaszewski, Symphony No. 3 'symphony Of Angels'

Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego

HIRE LIBRARY CATALOG WEBSHOP PBM

Paweł Łukaszewski

Symphony No. 3 'Symphony of Angels'

for soprano solo, choir and orchestra

Publisher: PWM/Print on demand

Countries of delivery:

Cat. no. 11212

I wrote Symphony III for soprano solo, mixed choir and symphony orchestra under the auspices of a scholarship from the city of Warsaw in 2010. The piece consists of two movements. The texts were selected from the following sources: I and II Books of Enoch (from the Old Testament Apocrypha), documents from the fourth Lateran Council (1215) and the first Vatican Council (1869-1870) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The selection of texts was preceded by a rigorous exploration and study of angelogical literature and old apocryphal books. During my work I contacted Prof. Sylvester Dworacki of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, who made a translation of the II Book of Enoch (the original is in Ethiopic) into Latin.

Angels are spiritual beings, or intangible, having no body. The spiritual nature of angels has been confirmed by a number of ecumenical councils, such as Lateran IV (1215), Lyons II (1274), Basil (1431-1435) and Vatican I (1869-1870). They occur not only in Christianity and Judaism, but also in Islam and ancient Iranian religions. According to the Bible the number of angels is enormous: ''Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him'' (Daniel 7, 10). '' ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels...'' (Hebrews 12, 22). '' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God'' (Luke 2, 13). ''And I heard the voice of many angels around the throne ... and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands'' (Rev. 5, 11).

On the basis of the books of the Bible, we can divide the angels into choruses. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite named the angels. Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones are those who gaze directly in the face of God, for His praise. The next chorus is Dominions, who take part in Gods commands in His power and perform their duties as instructed. Then there are the Powers that understand what is happening between essence and action of every being. After the Powers are the Principalities that guide all human actions to God. The next chorus is Sarim who help leaders, and finally the Archangels and the Angels. The Archangels deal with matters that concern the community or a larger number of people. The Angels however, carry our prayers to God, intercede for us and contribute to our salvation.

[Paweł Łukaszewski]