English composer wins Vatican Holy Year of Mercy hymn competition

Paul Inwood

English Catholic liturgical composer Paul Inwood has won an international competition for a hymn setting for the Holy Year of Mercy. The Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization announced the winning entry in an on its 'Jubilee of Mercy' website on Saturday. A large number of composers from around the world were invited to submit settings to a committee whose members included Monsignor Massimo Palombella, Director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, which has recorded the new hymn with Vatican Radio.

The hymn is currently available in Italian, English and French, and the author and composer have donated all rights in it to the Pontifical Council to aid its diffusion around the world.

Paul Inwood said: "It is a great honour for me that my setting was selected for the Holy Year of Mercy. The text we were given has a Latin antiphon and Italian verses interspersed with refrains in Latin, like a kind of litany. My music is also a mixture, with elements in the style of a Taizé response and a Gelineau tone. The verses work in any language ― I provided French and English translations ― and I deliberately kept the music very simple so that even the smallest parishes can hopefully make use of it. There is also some more elaborate music: a brass prelude and interludes, and a choral coda which is included in the recording."

The Holy Year begins with the opening of the Holy Door in St Peter's Basilica, Rome, on December 8th.

Links to the score and audio recording are currently only on the Pontifical Council's Italian website at: www.iubilaeummisericordiae.va/content/gdm/it/giubileo/inno.html

There is a YouTube video available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N0Dto5s9fg&feature=youtu.be&a