KOMM
Notes.
Komm makes reference to both the plainchant melody "Veni creator spiritus" ("Come, creator spirit" in its English translation), and the music of Bach's motet "Komm, Jesu, komm" (particularly its opening three chords, and the final choral melody, which appears unfinished here in the solo violin part). The treatment of the plainsong is drawn, in part, from the "intonations" of my choral/orchestral cantata, Veni.
Like many others, I am saddened by the violence and powermongering that often parade as responses to some of our world's greatest challenges. Veni creator is a millenium-old invitation to a positive and creative spirit; Komm, Jesu komm is a half-millenium old expression of both hope and peaceful surrender to a greater reality. Yet neither path appears to appeal to the rulers of our time, and the music ends inconclusively, though with a faint glimmer of hope in its final notes.