O Spirit of the Living God

Description

Austin Lovelace shows his gift for creative settings of American hymn-tunes in this piece. Here, the tune is taken from “Kentucky Harmony”, and the text from the Book of Acts. The organ part develops the melodic curve and rhythm of the tune while the voice parts develop from unison to four parts in both homophonic and imitative style. The final verse switches to the major mode supporting the hopefulness of the text.