Ite, angeli veloces

Hindemith worked on this trilogy between 1953 and 1955, setting French texts by Paul Claudel that he translated himself into German and English. The three parts — Chant de triomphe du roi David, Custos quid de nocte and Cantique de l'espérance — run to some fifty-five minutes and call for alto and tenor soloists, mixed choir, a separate congregational choir, orchestra and brass band. The scale and the doubled choral forces place it among his few large sacred works, alongside the Requiem on Whitman. It is rarely performed, largely because of what it demands.