Conserva Me Domine

The text of this affecting composition was assembled using stray verses from a half-dozen separate passages from the Bible, mostly psalms. In setting this unusual text, the composer assigns the top voice a different key signature from the lower three voices, the practice known as “partial signatures”. The musical result is a kind of poly-modality which heightens the harmonic and melodic urgency in the musical expression of the text's fervent plea.