Category: Composition

On the same day as my last post, my church choir had spent much time learning something that I consider a little more difficult than my average piece.  Originally, Panis Quem Ego was written for the Duquesne organ department choir for one of the chapel Masses that we do.  I didn’t record the original performance, but the piece is a little more tricky than  what my choir is use to.  But they learned it well and sang it well.

There is one mistake (well, there are several, but I’m only going to point out one).  At the end of the piece, the word “vita” is sung.  One of my sopranos accidentally added an “s” to the end of it.  There are a few other blurbs, but I really like this piece and this recoding is pretty solid otherwise.  Someone once pointed out the Duruflé influence; I will ALWAYS take that as a compliment.  In the realm of mistakes one can make on a Sunday, this is not the worst, so I present to you a piece well sung, but not perfect.

On the Friday before Lent begins, the Passionists celebrate a feast particular to their order called the Solemn Commemoration of Passion.  Since they can’t make Good Friday their order feast day, they celebrate it early.  As it is only found in the Passionist community, it is a truly unique celebration.  That being said, I thought it appropriate to share one of the pieces I composed based on the letters of St. Paul of the Cross.  In fact, it was the first piece I wrote at the Monastery!  The words to this choral work are:

O Divine Goodness, engage us in devotion;  answer our time of need; as the Spirit inspires our hearts and minds: O Divine Goodness, hear us as we pray.

Kneel at the Cross, in the sacred silence, let God’s graces rain in abundance.

O Divine Goodness, come to us as incense; that we might be compassion and charity; let the Spirit inspire our hearts and minds: O Divine Goodness, hear as we pray.

In te speravi, the Offertory proper for the 19th Sunday in ordinary time, is a text from Psalm 30:15-16 and is a little piece I wrote the night before it was performed.  I wanted something Renaissance-like, but with a few modern harmonies that I like.  It’s short, sweet, and followed by a fugal improvisation on the piano.  (Someday, the organ will be fixed…)

An editorial note: I originally filmed this, but I didn’t position the camera well and it didn’t look very flattering to John, my cantor, and myself.  So I extracted the audio from the video file.  There is also a change in the EQ between the singing and the piano to make each part sound better.

Lastly, I was mentioning to our presider at the liturgy that I had whipped out the piece the night before.  John followed that with, “the only thing I whip out is ice cream.”  Now I will think of ice cream every time this piece is done.  Hilarious.

It is with great pleasure that the CD, “Music at the Monastery” has been released.  The CD is a compilation of music for the Passion of Jesus Christ, containing mostly compositions by me (this may seem a bit self-serving, but it does help avoid the whole copyright issue).  This particular piece is my setting of the Ubi Caritas, a setting I like to call the “poor-man’s Duruflé.”  When you listen to it, you’ll get the idea and why I like to call it that.

I want to note that I haven’t made any posts recently because the organ at the Monastery is down for the count!  It’s a simple electrical problem, but it’s meant a couple of weeks of improvising on the piano.  Not NEARLY as exciting as what I like to do, but has given me a chance to try out some rather Debussy-esque music.

One of my major projects I plan on undertaking is to write an entire set of Choral Offertory and Communion Propers for the Church Year.  Nothing like the old Renaissance polyphonic settings, but short, moderately easy pieces that include the Latin incepit and the English translation.  And hopefully INTERESTING.  The hard part about a project like this is making all the pieces stand as uniquely as they can.  I will certainly admit that much of what I do can all sound the same after a while, but that is the challenge of the composer!  This piece comes from the Gospel of John, Chapter 6: the Bread of Life discourse.