Tyndale: A Reformation Oratorio

Abstract

Tyndale: A Reformation Oratorio is an hour-long musical composition summarizing the story of William Tyndale, a Lutheran scholar who translated the Bible into English and was executed as a heretic in 1536. The piece is in two parts of eight movements each. Broadly speaking, Part One examines the causes that would underlie Tyndale’s life work (his upbringing and education, his commitment to credal orthodoxy, the abuses of Rome, the tide of Lutheran reform, and the scholarly call for a clear English translation), while Part Two deals with the resulting consequences (Tyndale’s flight to the continent, the dissemination of his translation, the rage of his enemies, his capture and execution, and the eventual triumph of his vernacular translation in the English Church). Scored for SATB chorus, children’s chorus, soloists, narrator, and orchestra, the oratorio is mainly written in a late Romantic vein, with allusions to sixteenth-century counterpoint, medieval folk songs, recitative, church anthems, sea shanties, minimalism, and music from Broadway and film.