Adoré (String Orchestra)

Adoré, for String Orchestra. 5 minutes. (2007) Composed by request of the strings of the Aineo Christian Chamber Orchestra and premiered at Zipper Hall in Los Angeles in 2007. Performed on several occasions in concert, beginning at Zipper Hall, and including a composition festival on campus at Biola University on Oct. 11, 2014, performed by the strings of the Biola University Symphony. Appears on the 2014 Navona album, “Soul of the Machine.”

Utilizing quotations from the beloved hymn, “My Tribute,” this work for string orchestra by Sarah Wallin was completed in 2007, at the request of the Aineo Christian String Ensemble (a division of the Aineo Christian Chamber Orchestra). It was premiered to a full and receptive audience at Zipper Hall in the Colburn School of Los Angeles (CA) the same year.

Dr. Edward David Zeliff has described the work as having “beautiful string sonorities” and an “openness and ethereal quality…wonderfully fitting for a prayer of worship, very mystical…[the] first 16 bars are gorgeous – reminiscent of [Charles] Ives’ Unanswered Question with a little of Morton Gould’s fascinatingly original and highly textured string writing thrown in”. The work can be divided into three sections. The first opens with a solo violin carrying the melody of the hymn’s chorus over a backdrop of sustained harmonics, and, afterwards, easing into a rich texture of harmonies as the cellos, and then the first violins, introduce the melody of the verse. The second section returns with the solo violin presenting the chorus’ melody over a gentle ripple of subtle movement in the accompaniment. This leads mightily into the third section, for which Wallin managed to interweave the three original melodies of the bridge, chorus, and verse into one striking sound world of unique harmonies and texture. This carries the listener through to the final, climactic statement of the chorus: “To God be the glory, for the things He has done.”