The Prayer of Saint Francis is originally written for prayer during

mass at Christian churches. I chose an excerpt of this text because it

exhibits a strong contrast between negative and positive emotions,

which I thought would be challenging to explore musically. Each

line is divided into phrases that begin with “where there is...” and

“let me bring...”. For this piece, the text was rearranged to represent

a journey from darkness to light, which is accompanied by a drastic

change in music. I did this by exploring the minor modes of C

Phrygian and C Aeolian in the first section and by using descending

melodic ideas. The second section starts in Ab major and journeys

via the C Mixolydian mode to C major. The main motif is

inverted, and a more driving rhythm is introduced. At the end of

the piece, each part sings a different positive lyric to conclude.