Miserere

Program Notes:

Basque composer Eva Ugalde (b. 1973) is closely connected to the choir world as a chorister, composer, and conductor. For many years a singer in Javier Busto’s Kanta Cantemus Korua, a groundbreaking women’s choir in her homeland, in 2023 she took on the role as director of the choir under its new name, Aquam Lauda. Among Eva’s published choral works is this dark and expressive Miserere for SSA choir (div.) a cappella. She dedicated it “to the victims of war”.

Text:

Miserere mihi Domine,
quoniam ad te clamavi tota die:
​quia tu Domine suavis ac mitis es,
​ et copiosus in misericordia
​omnibus invocantibus te.

​Inclina, Domine, aurem tuam,
et exaudi me:
​quoniam inops, et pauper sum ego.

​Translation:

Have mercy on me, o Lord,
for to you I pray all the day long.
For you are forgiving and mild,
and abundant in mercy
to all who call upon you.

Incline your ear, o Lord,
and answer me
for I am helpless and infirm.