Ubi Caritas [Where Affection and Love Abide] (Motet for Unison Voices and Organ) was composed in early 2003 and is warmly dedicated to Barbara Beattie, John Mitchener and the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Adult Choir, Winston-Salem, NC. Mrs. Beattie and Dr. Mitchener are Director of Music and Organist respectively at St. Paul’s, the church where my wife and I are members. Ubi Caritas is the last of several Latin motets that I intended to compose in 1999 but was the only one that I did not complete that year. My plan was to create a setting of the three stanzas of this lyrical text for unison choir and organ and this motet is the result. Especially written with summer and holiday church choirs in mind – where rehearsal time is very limited – it was my aim to compose a motet where the choral parts could be quickly learned. The organ part is a bit more challenging, but it, too, is not complex. Though glorious and technically complex music abounds on a regular basis from St. Paul’s and other outstanding churches throughout America, I hope that my setting of Ubi Caritas will prove meaningful to many and, at the same time, serve a practical need.
I am grateful to my Wake Forest University colleague, Dr. Robert Ulery, for his translation of Ubi Caritas and for his permission to use it here.
Duration: ca. 4′
Dan Locklair
January 2003
Winston-Salem, NC
Ubi Caritas
Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor. Exsultemus et in ipso iucundemur. Timeamus et amemus Deum vivum, Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero. Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. |
Where affection and love abide, God is. We are gathered in one body by the love of Christ. Let us rejoice and be glad in Him. Let us fear and love the living God, and from the heart let us love each other sincerely. Where affection and love abide, God is. Where affection and love abide, God is. |
tr. Robert Ulery
January 2003