O Sacred Head, Now Wounded – take 12


This is a final version of this piece

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O Sacred Head, Now Wounded is one of my favorite hymns. It started life in the 11th century as a poem, later set to music. Bach harmonized it around 1734.

This version is scored for mallet instruments and woodwinds, specifically marimba, vibraphone, finger piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and sine waves. The basic idea is to keep the marvelous Bach harmonies but stretch it out a bit. Each chord is repeated or held and arpeggiated before moving to the next one.

The tuning is low integer just, approximated in 72 EDO. You can see the specific ratios used in the chart above. Click on the image to make it bigger.

Published by

Prent Rodgers

Musician seduced into capitalism.

2 thoughts on “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded – take 12”

  1. You’re right. I let the octaves get away from me on some of the instruments. The vibraphone go way high and the marimbas get too low. It’s an artifact of the algorithm.

  2. Hi Prent,

    This is lovely. The only possible drawback are the few occasions where the lower register of the… marimba? gets a bit crowded. Otherwise this is a beautiful piece, sad and pretty to me.

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