"COMPLETUS": TECHNICAL / MUSICAL DESCRIPTION

The three four-part settings:

Each of these settings lasts between three and a half and four minutes. They are settings of the Nunc Dimittis and three of the additional prayers used at the end of the Compline service following the prayer "Lighten our darkness ..." They may appropriately be sung as church choir anthems, both for Compline or during Choral Evensong.

All three are within the reach of a good church choir, though the vocal range of the third setting is more demanding, with an alternative bass part provided in two short passages. Chord pitching here may also require a little more care.

Each is a setting for SATB unaccompanied voices, with a mixture of polyphonic and homophonic sections.  The second setting also employs an SAT semi-chorus, which in a small choir could mean just one or two to a part.

The setting of "Look Down, O Lord" and "Be Present, O Merciful Father" is in ABA form, in the keys A minor and F# minor. The line "O Lord, illuminate the darkness of this night with thy celestial brightness" is given only to the basses, who intone the passage against the melodic workings of the other three parts during the setting of both prayers.

Key sense is a little more fluid in " O Lord Support Us", reflecting the feverish, troublous life; but it is essentially in the keys of E minor and A minor. There are a few more leger lines to cope with!

The three eight-part settings:

These three settings are longer, and more challenging, especially the final movement " O Radiant Light", which will be beyond the resources of many choirs.  But if this is the case, the setting of "Lighten our Darkness" can be moved to provide an effective closing movement, all the more so if the optional trombone quartet is available.

Qui Habitat, the opening movement, is a setting of psalm 91 (XC in the Vulgate numbering).  Basil the Great (d. 379) mentioned a form of Compline, referring especially to the singing of this psalm, which is still said today, together with other psalms with a special relevance to night, or to sleep and the image of Death.  Qui Habitat has itself been set comparatively rarely, most notably, twice, by Josquin des Prez (d. 1521), with a four part motet setting and a large a capella 24 voice canon.

Note that in some of the early sections the two groups, decani and cantoris, sing in different metres.  As the metre switches between simple and compound time the tempo adjusts slightly, but not such that the beat of quaver remains the same.  The suggested tempo markings give an indication of what is intended and in general tempi are given simply to indicate a suggested relationship between different parts of a movement.

Keep me as the apple of an eye with Lighten our darkness can be sung with or without the trombone quartet.  As with the other movements contrapuntal sections alternative with more homophonic passages in various combinations - a good substitute final movement if necessary.