Gabriel's Message

Ancient and mysterious, Gabriels Message first came into the English-speaking world via Sabine Baring-Gould, who had spent a winter in the Basque region of France as a boy. He paraphrased the enchanting Birjina gazette bat zegoen which he encountered there, into the version we know as Gabriels Message. But even this folk carol was a paraphrase of yet another versiona Latin tune known as Angelus Ad Verginem (The Angel to the Virgin). Like so many others, I instantly admired this tune when I first heard it. I hope that this arrangement brings a musically sophisticated and satisfying experience to younger string and harp players. All violins, violas, cellos and basses get to share the melody, and the violas take on a particularly attractive obbligato. Meanwhile, the harp gets to join in on the drama with majestic chords and glissandi. The part may be played on either a pedal or lever harp. Seth Bedford