Lead Kindly Light

Voicing: SATB Chorus and Organ
By David Conte

"'Lead, Kindly Light is a setting of John Henry Newman's well known hymn text. Newman was inspired to write this text in 1833 after recovering from a difficult illness. My setting is a choral adaptation of the third song in my cycle 'Songs of Consolation' (Catalog No. 5317), composed in 1997 for soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson and organist Donald Sutherland. In adapting this work for chorus and organ, I was able to expand greatly on various harmonic and contrapuntal possibilities to illuminate this great text. The overall tone is both reverent and fervent, beginning with simple humility and rising to a climax on the text: 'And with the morn those angel faces smile…' The arc of the piece reflects the spiritual journey of moving through the difficult night to the comfort of morning."