Stephen Hatfield

Mosaik

This piece is the anthem for MosaiK', a choral festival in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. One of the festival's guiding principals is the inclusion of the culture and music of both national languages, and so the unusual spelling and orthography of 'MonsaiK' comes from the festival's desire for a name that was recognizable in both French and English while actually being neither. Stephen Hatfields setting therefore also employs both French and English texts. He has created a piece with a message that every 'tile' contributes equally when building a mosaic; in the same way each voice contributes to building a choir and a community. This is also why the title 'mosaic' is spelled in lower case - no single letter gets to be 'over' another.With an IPA pronunciation guide provided, this a cappella setting can be sung by choirs large and small and with lots of foreign language experience or none at all.