The second movement in the Divine Office work comes from the same place that the first movement did: a flute and organ work reworked for an evening prayer service around 2008. These first two pieces were originally titled Vespers and Benediction. Their use at the beginning of the Divine Office led me to the idea that they could be the beginning of something bigger. And bigger for the organ more specifically.
Later on, when the movement arrives, there is one work written far earlier than the rest. In the meantime though, this is the second of two works originally conceived as a specific set for a specific reason. As a “prelude” and “postlude,” I like them quite a bit together even without the flute.
The Divine Office is one of the strangest works I have written. By that I mean it has an odd history of being a conglomerate of several different points of composition. I should begin with my brief opinion about the Liturgy of the Hours.
As I have often mentioned in previous posts, I work at a Monastery as the Director of Music in the Church of the Monastery (compared to the Retreat Center, which is part of the Passionist charism). At some point, we had explored the idea of holding specific hours in the Church. It never really caught on, but this piece was compiled and composed in the Fall of 2009 with a specific afternoon prayer in mind.
The first two movements, this being Matins (or Midnight in the Liturgy of the Hours), were originally written for flute and organ manuals. The pedal part takes the place of the flute and this is the result. Originally, as these things happen to be conceived, Matins, was a part of a service at the Monastery. I did not record the original version of the work but rather reworked it into an organ piece and this is the result.
Under almost every circumstance, I would not post another composer’s work here unless I had a specific reason. That happened once before when I used another composition as direct inspiration for a work that I wrote. In this specific post, I post as a performer as much as a composer. My 5-year old, Malachi, walked up to me recently, handed me some sheets of paper and asked if I could play what he wrote. I was so surprised!
I have performed (and occasionally recorded) a lot of music but this was an absolute honor. Malachi wanted the music to be the CRAZIEST thing I have ever played. I have performed some crazy music, besides the improvisations I like to do, and this was so fun. So much fun. I played for him Stockhausen, Cage, Ligeti, among things I may not remember exposing in his five years of life.
How does one realize an abstract score such as the one given? Well, it starts with many of the elements involved in creating an improvisation – arc, form, continuity. Malachi wanted crazy, so I interpreted that as very un-pitched material, in the tonal sense of pitch material. I think if you follow the video, the rhythms make sense, or at least have logic in my particular interpretation.
Lastly, as a parent, which is something I do not talk about on this blog, this makes me SO FREAKIN’ HAPPY. And when I played my rendition of his notes, he had a HUGE grin. SO EXCITED. SMILEY FACE HAPPY. 🙂 Enjoy!