Gloria In Excelsis Deo!: Choral Octavo

Radiant and celebratory, with harmonies that feel modern without becoming overly complex. The text itself carries centuries of devotional weight, and Berkey's setting lets that meaning breathe through clear part-writing and a keyboard part that colors rather than clutters.

Treble choirs seeking contemporary settings of liturgical texts, from middle school through adult community choirs. This works equally well in worship settings and concert programming where you want sacred music that sounds fresh without abandoning singability.

• Balance the soprano parts carefully in passages where they divide; the first sopranos should never disappear, even when doubling the melody.
• Approach the keyboard accompaniment as a collaborative voice rather than a strict metronome; allow it to breathe with the choir's phrasing.
• Pay attention to text-painting moments where harmonic movement reflects the meaning of "Gloria" or other key words, and shape those phrases to highlight the composer's intent.
• Establish a clear vowel unification strategy early in rehearsal, especially across the alto line, since treble choirs often have wide age and experience ranges.

This pairs naturally with other contemporary sacred works in a concert that mixes traditional and modern approaches to liturgical texts. It also serves as a strong closer for a treble choir concert or as a processional in a worship context where you want something more interesting than a simple unison setting.

• Singing in parallel and oblique motion with other voice parts
• Balancing divided soprano lines
• Interpreting text through harmonic color and phrasing
• Blending with keyboard accompaniment
• Reading and performing contemporary sacred music