Duration: 11.5 min.
Dedication: for James and Marilyn Biery
Commission: Commissioned by The Commission Project for James and Marilyn Biery
Publisher: Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc. in "Carson Cooman: Organ Music, Vol. 2"
Exaltations (2001) was commissioned by The Commission Project for James and Marilyn Biery, organists at the Cathedral of St. Paul, Minnesota. The work is in three movements, each taking its extra-musical inspiration from a different Biblical passage dealing with “exaltation.” Certain musical elements run throughout the three movements, most notably a texture consisting of the building of thick chords and harmonies note-by-note. The opening movement presents “herald fanfares” of jubilation which are interrupted by slower sections of glorification. The second movement is slow and very warm. A sense of quiet exaltation and wonder is present throughout. The final movement presents unbounded exuberance and joy—pressing ever onward to its conclusion. A brief middle section recalls material from the second movement in a new context.