A Franciscan Pastorale.

A Franciscan Pastorale (based on St. Francis of Assisi's "All Creatures of Our God and King"), by Franklin D. Ashdown. H. W. Gray/Warner Bros. Publications (15800 N. W. 48th Ave., Miami, FL 33014), 2001. 7 pp., $3.95. Intermediate.

The stately lines of Lasst Uns Erfruen ("All Creatures of Our God and King") receive gentle and refreshing treatment here at the hands of ASCAP-winning composer Franklin Ashdown, who shapes the hymn tune in sometimes unexpected but thoroughly effective ways, characterized by the use of continually shifting sonorities and slow but steady increases in registration, dynamics and intensity, giving the work the feel of one giant crescendo.

Opening in a serene, almost mystical, manner, the work features a chain of sonorities that alternately rise and fall over a long pedal point in A-flat major. The first verse of the chorale appears after a page and a half and continues, with only brief interruption, in its entirety. No sooner has the verse concluded, however, than the swirling currents of sound gently propel the listener to the new key of A major, where the entrance of the melody is again suspended for some measures, this time voicing the second half of the verse only. ...