Choral Music
My catalog of choral music is woefully
small, and pitifully unperformed. I
have sung in choruses, conducted choruses and befriended choral directors, but
I haven’t yet managed to achieve what I hope for, a body of work that
makes a meaningful contribution to the choral repertoire. I feel that my approach is too
instrumental, that I give singers’ ears perhaps more credit than I ought
to, or that I simply haven’t pushed hard enough in this area. I do the best I can to not think like a
trombonist when I write choral music—I take some different compositional
approaches with vocal and choral music.
In general though, while many choirs commission new music, the resulting
pieces often fail to break new ground.
Words of Faith Series
A major concern of mine is music for
Christian worship. Perhaps one day
I will address this on my blog, but for now, let us suffice to say that I am a
traditionalist, and that I know my reasons don’t always hold up. De
gustibus non est
disputandum.
As I listen to Pärt and Taverner, it pains me to realize that their music, pure and
worshipful as it is, is being drowned in an ever-rising tide of bad parodies of
popular song. Call me an anachronism;
call me a snob. You are probably
right on this point. I would love
to write more sacred choral music, but after attending several churches over
the last few years, I have not yet found a music minister who seems
particularly interested in anything that doesn’t involve drumset and electric guitar.
So, I haven’t found the music
minister that wants to program a new anthem of mine every couple of months, but
I still get the urge to set Scripture every so often, and it has resulted in
several short pieces for a cappella chorus. If you can think of a use for them,
please feel free to download the PDF files and print as many as you need. I think they would work well as calls to
worship, as mediations prior to a sermon, as benedictions, or just about anywhere
else. Check back here for new
titles!
Create in Me—Psalm
51:10-12
Benediction—Numbers
6:24-26
For God Alone—Psalm
62:1-2
A New Command I Give You—John
13:34
Hear, O Israel—Deuteronomy
6:4-6
Progress Through
Knowledge for SATB
chorus with band (6 minutes)
Commissioned by the
Poem by Elaina Stewart, winner OPSU Centennial Poetry Contest
Premiered October 2009 by the OPSU Concert Choir and Concert Band,
Joel Garber, conducting
For a full description of this piece,
see the band page.
El Piano de Genoveva
for mariachi and
electric guitar (5 minutes)
Poem by Ramón
Lopez Velarde
Premiered September 2008 by Mariachi OPSU
There is a part for women’s chorus
in this 2008 piece, but it is intended for one or two singers per part. Read more about it on the chamber music
page.
Return Unto Thy Rest, O My Soul for
a cappella chorus (5 minutes)
Poem: Psalm 116: 7-14 (KJV)
A fantastic a cappella piece
from the summer of 2005 that a really strong choir could have a great deal of
fun putting together. It
incorporates snatches of the Hebrew alongside the Early Modern English text,
and includes some very interesting rhythmic effects. I would love to hear this performed in a
dark cathedral.
Prayers in Time of War for tenor, chorus and
string orchestra (15 minutes)
Poems by Matthew C. Saunders
This piece is the reason I no longer
write without the prospect of a commission. I have flanked four of my own poems with
a Kyrie and an Agnus Dei. The piece is
wonderful, and I am particularly fond of the orchestra parts, but it remains
unperformed since I completed it in 2004.
In Eccelsiis for
chorus and piano (5 minutes)
At one time, I considered myself to be a choral composer, but as
things have fallen out, I have tended toward chamber music and band over the
last few years. This was the last
piece I wrote before I started graduate school in 2004, and it was consciously
modeled after the Giovanni Gabrielli motet on the
same text, which I had been studying to prepare for the promised history exam
(which I passed). Missing of course
are the grand concertante forces of Gabrielli’s
work, but I think the piece itself is promising.
O God of Love for chorus and piano (5 minutes)
Poem by Henry W. Baker and
Augustine of Hippo
Written for a competition at
The Story of Pecos Bill, children’s operetta
(20 minutes)
Premiered April 2004 by the Barr
Elementary School Fifth Grade, Matthew Saunders, conductor, Sheffield Lake,
Ohio
This little operetta was the class
project for three classrooms of fifth-graders, who wrote the lyrics and the
book, and then produced the play once I had written the music. The music is essentially popular in
style and completely unlike most of my other work. It was really a great deal of fun. I would suggest this idea to other
composers to understand how most of the rest of the world approaches music.
The Beatitudes for chorus, harp and trombones (7
minutes)
Premiered December 2003 by Oberlin Choral Spectrum,
Ted Williams, conductor, Oberlin, Ohio
The trickiest piece in the portfolio I
submitted to graduate schools in late 2003. Not only was it my first large choral
piece, it was my first attempt to write for harp, and in the end, it turned out
well. If you know
a choir who just happens to be hiring a harpist (doing the Britten Ceremony of Carols, perhaps), this might
be your piece. There is a
super-sweet bass trombone lick for Gary Twining, the best trombone-playing wine
critic I know. in
addition to the text from the Sermon on the Mount, I added additional
Scriptural texts as a commentary on what I have always found to be a confusing
passage.
Listen to a sample.—From
the beginning of the piece
