Moving and powerful, this piece for unaccompanied SATBB is appropriately mournful, but sublime. Nicholson's voicing requires a choir with enormous range: sopranos must be able to reach an A, while the basses must be able to sing from E2 to D4. Interior voices have similarly challenging ranges.
CHORAL SERIES: Trinitas
VOICING: SATBB and a cappella
DIFFICULTY: Medium/Difficult
SEASON: The Sacred Paschal Triduum
LITURGICAL NOTES: Originally used as the Fifth Responsory of the Tenebrae of Good Friday (the service which, until 1955, was sung on Holy Thursday evening), the Tenebrae factae sunt is a somber text depicting Jesus's last moments on the cross.
