"In 1888 a music journal in Milan published what it called an "enigmatic scale" of unusual intervals, and invited composers to harmonize it in some fashion. Verdi took up the challenge by using the scale as a basis for a motet in 16th-century style on the traditional "Ave Maria" text. The peculiar ascending/descending scale is set in very long notes in the Bass, Alto, Tenor, and Soprano parts in turn, while the other voices weave around it with extremely chromatic lines, often creating rather startling harmonic progressions. Though intended by the composer primarily as a technical exercise, this Ave Maria still manages to communicate a sense of great drama and religious integrity. A few years before his death, it was published together with three other religious works as Quattro Pezzi Sacri."
The scale referenced is:
We started a challenge. Write pieces of about one minute. Must be for string quartet with optional wind solo - and must be an Adagio.
I wrote three miniatures and these are the MP3s:
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