Prayer of Saint Gregory, for trumpet and string orchestra

• Hovhaness composed Prayer of St. Gregory op. 62b in 1948.¹

“The Prayer of St Gregory was an intermezzo in my religious opera Etchmiadzin. Saint Gregory, the Illuminator, brought Christianity to Armenia around the year 301. This music is like a prayer in darkness. St Gregory was cast into the pit of a dungeon where he miraculously survived after about fifteen years after which he cured the King’s madness.”

“… the solo trumpet functions as a cantor, or preacher.”

From Hovhaness’s program note²

1. Alan Hovhaness, liner notes to Alan Hovhaness: Symphony No. 25 (Odysseus) et al, Polyphonia Orchestra of London, Alan Hovhaness, Chrystal Records 807, CD, 1993.
2. Quoted in Keith Brion, liner notes to Hovhaness:
   Symphonies Nos. 4, 20 and 53 • Trumpet Concerto • The Prayer of St Gregory, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Wind Orchestra, Keith Brion, Naxos 8.559207 , CD, 2005.