Paul Barnes's video: Paul Barnes performs Trisagion by David von Kampen

Composer David von Kampen wrote this gorgeous piano work for me based on two Greek Orthodox hymns. I performed this on my Bright Sadness recital on June 12, 2020 as part of the 2020 Pan-Orthodox Music Symposium sponsored by St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary and the International Society for Orthodox Church Music. I chant both hymns and discuss the creation of this beautiful work. Music begins at 5:25. Program Notes Trisagion (2020) by David von Kampen I have been chanting in Orthodox churches for twenty-five years and playing the piano for fifty years. Combining these two sacred activities has been a professional priority ever since Victoria Bond wrote her beautiful pianistic meditation on the Greek Orthodox communion hymn Potirion Sotiriu “The Cup of Salvation” back in 1999. Since that time several composers including Philip Glass (Piano Quintet “Annunciation,” 2018) and Ivan Moody (Nocturne of Light, 2010) have written beautiful piano works based on byzantine chant. When I asked my composer friend and Glenn Korff School of Music colleague David von Kampen to write a piano piece for me based on byzantine chant, I had selected the beautiful baptismal hymn Osi Is Hriston “As Many of You as were Baptized into Christ” from Galatians 3:27. But life is full of unexpected events. After David had begun writing the piece, I chanted the funeral of our priest’s wife Veda Anna and was deeply moved by the beauty of the processional chant that is sung as the body is brought to the front of the church at the beginning of the funeral service. This hymn is also sung on Holy Friday when Orthodox Christians remember Christ’s passion and experience the truth of a God who shared everything with us including our humanity and even death itself. This hymn had such a powerful effect on me that I asked David to incorporate it into his new work. Thus, Trisagion was born. Trisagion or “Thrice Holy” is an ancient hymn based on the trinitarian revelation of God found in Isaiah 6. Revealing a mystical vision of heavenly worship, the seraphim sings: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts.” In the byzantine hymn, the seraphic utterance is rendered as “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.” Thus David’s piece combines what Orthodox Christians proclaim as the two beginnings of humanity – our new birth into Christ, and our entrance into eternity. David’s work also recalls my previous life as an evangelical pianist where my own hymn arrangements were central to my role in worship. David, a confessional Lutheran, is clearly steeped in this tradition going all the way back to Bach. Both melodies used in Trisagion can be found in the 1945 Greek Byzantine Liturgical Hymnal by George Anastassiou, the student of the famous Athenian chanter and composer John Sakellarides whose reformed melodies Anastassiou used in his hymnal. These melodies are beloved by Greek Orthodox here in the US, and it was at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Lincoln Nebraska where I first heard them in their liturgical context. David begins Trisagion with a complete statement of the funeral hymn which is then beautifully developed before the entrance of the baptismal hymn. This hymn is developed in a variety of ways including a clear reference to the Lutheran Bach’s contrapuntal textures. The work concludes with a powerful restatement of the funeral hymn as we have musically experienced the two beginnings of baptism and death. Trisagion was commissioned by the Nebraska Music Teachers Association and the Music Teachers National Association as part of their Commissioned Composer program. The work will have its official world premiere at the NMTA State Conference to be held on Oct 22-23 at the Glenn Korff School of Music of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. David also wrote a companion work for choir written for the UNL Chamber Singers under the direction of Marques Garrett who will also perform at the world premiere of the piano version.