O Oriens

Composer: Barna Szabó
Words from composer

The O Antiphons are among the most beautiful liturgical texts associated with the Christmas season.
These ancient chants, sung during the final seven days of Advent (17–23 December), follow a distinctive threefold structure: the opening exclamation “O,” followed by an Old Testament symbol referring to the Redeemer, and the plea veni (“come”).
Read in reverse order, the initial letters of the Latin symbols form the acrostic ERO CRAS (“Tomorrow I will be there”), an allusion to the words of Jesus: “Tomorrow I will be with you.”
O Oriens, composed in 2022, is the fifth piece in the series. Its atmosphere is shaped by the invoked contrast of light and shadow and by a deep longing for redemption, revealed in the image of the rising sun.