Prayer of Saint Gregory

From Wind Repertory Project
Alan Hovhaness

Alan Hovhaness


This work bears the designation Opus 62B.


General Info

Year: 1946 / 1952 / 1972 / 2012
Duration: c. 4:45
Difficulty: III (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Peer Music Classical
Cost: Score and Parts - $45.00   |   Score Only - $9.95


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute
Oboe
Bassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III-IV
E-flat Alto Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Cornet I-II
B-flat Trumpet Solo
Horn in F I-II
Trombone I-II-III
Tuba
String Bass
Timpani
Percussion, including:

  • Chimes
  • Tam-Tam (large)


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

The Prayer of St. Gregory, a five-minute work for trumpet and strings, began life as an intermezzo in Hovhaness’s opera Etchmiadzin, composed in mid-1946, and premiered in New York in October of that year. The present excerpt, described by Hovhaness as "a prayer in darkness," was soon extracted as a separate work, and is one of his most popular short pieces. The personage referred to in the work's title is St. Gregory the Illuminator, who at the beginning of the fourth century brought Christianity to Armenia. This calm work, in a moderate tempo, begins with gentle chords, chorale-like, in Hovhaness’s unmistakable modal melodic and harmonic vein, over which a slow trumpet melody gradually unfolds itself.

- Program Note by Christ Morrison for the Appalachian State University Concert Band concert program, 24 April 2017


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Peninsula Concert Band (Williamsburg, Va.) (Ronnie Tong, conductor) - 22 March 2023
  • University of Missouri-St. Louis Wind Ensemble (David Wacyk, conductor; Dawn Weber, trumpet) - 7 December 2022
  • Nicholls State University (Thibodeaux, La.) Wind Ensemble (Jason S. Ladd, conductor; Matthew Swihart, trumpet) – 17 October 2018
  • Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, Minn.) Wind Symphony (Heidi Johanna Miller, conductor; Jonathan Brandt, trumpet) - 19 May 2018
  • Appalachian State University (Boone, N.C.) Concert Band (John Stanley Ross, conductor; Arias Fischer, trumpet) - 24 April 2017
  • Clarence (N.Y.?) High School Symphonic Band - 2015
  • Emory Wind Ensemble (Stuart Stephenson, trumpet; Nikk Pilato, conductor) - 25 April 2014
  • Keene (N.H.) State College Concert Band (James Chesebrough, conductor) - 5 November 2009
  • San Luis Obispo (Calif.) Wind Orchestra (William V. Johnson, conductor) - 9 May 2004


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources

  • Hovhaness, A. (2012). Prayer of Saint Gregory for Trumpet and Band [score]. Peermusic Classical: New York.