The Ave Regína Cælórum is an ancient Marian prayer of the Catholic Church, one of four Marian antiphons. The text can be translated as:
Hail, O Queen of Heaven enthroned.
Hail, by angels mistress owned.
Root of Jesse, Gate of Morn
Whence the world's true light was born.
This is a simplification of the double-chorus version, where each SATB choir is represented by a single melody line. The two parts weave counterpoint over a substratum of quintuplets played by the piano. The harmonic language is tonal, triadic, and major.
This piece is scored for two-part treble chorus, but it would work equally well in two-part men's chorus.
This version of Ave Regína Cælórum has been performed by the Greeley Children's Chorale of Greeley, Colorado.
It's interesting how this piece came to be — I began, as I often do, by composing the piano part. Afterward, it seemed à propos to add a very thick-textured, homophonic eight-voice choir, and I began looking for a text that could fit. The Ave Regína Cælórum seemed perfect — it fit rhythmically, and I love texts that honor the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, I never composed the eight-voice arrangement I'd envisioned. Instead, I created this two-part children's choir setting first. Later, when the Vittoria Ensemble showed interest in my work, I took the existing two-part arrangement and expanded each voice into its own four-part choir (see other listing), which ironically made for a more interesting piece than I had thought of initially.