A little over a week ago, I wrote about the first Lenten Improvisation. I talked a little about the curiosities about naming a composition “improvisation.” Or at least having a thoroughly composed piece sound as though the performer is improvising it. This set was specifically designed to sound in manner of how I like to improvise and this second movement is again not an exception.
I often like to build “towers” of sound in my improvising (here’s an example from a few years ago); this second work is a written out expression of my use of that technique. It moves a lot more than the linked example of me improvising, but that is one of the advantages of composing. I was able to get a stronger, more cohesive arc in the overall presentation of the material. Similar to the first movement, it ends with silence as the final “note” from the modestly dissonant final chord.
I have some excellent news! A number of posts in the recent year has had me lamenting the condition of the organ at the Monastery. I have even neglected making many posts because its condition. As of a few weeks ago, the Monastery is looking to acquire a new organ! Or rather, a new old organ. Fingers crossed: the current instrument on the radar is an 1885 Hook and Hastings. There is nothing like it in the city and it will sound fantastic in the Monastery’s excellent acoustic.
In the mean time, I am trying to take advantage of the one instrument I have some access to: the Duquesne Univserity Chapel organ. It is a recent Jaeckel instrument inspired by Charles Tournemire’s writings, which is quite apparent in the stop list. It is a good instrument and I am all for using trackers. They keep us organists honest in our technique.
These Lenten Improvisations were born out of trying to compose in a manner of how I sometimes improvise. The difference between improvisation and composition, at least for me, is a strange one. Composition often starts in a similar manner as an improvisation, but obviously goes in a more directed manner as more time is given to flesh out ideas. But trying to compose and make it sound improvisatory was an interesting task. This first improvisation ends with something I was starting to do more at the time, which was include long, somewhat dissonant moments resolving into silence. That idea definitely returns in the subsequent movements.
As I continue to finish my doctorate, which has really taken up all of my free time, I often find myself wishing I had time to do more fun things. I also try to engage my children in music (not pushing it on them, but simply engaging) with singing silly things about the games we play, the things we are doing in that moment and the stuffed animals we play with. Well, this is the product of one of those moments.
Winter, my 4 year old son and have written a few songs together but this one really stands out. This is no joke, the kid came up with the rhyme! Kids are so clever given the opportunity. I also had the idea for the video one day when we were drawing pictures of some of the stuffed animals. Here, in all its glory, is “Monster ate this Song.” And if you would like the sheet music, click here!
Wow. August was crazy. But that is for another time. As it has been a little while and with the ongoing problems with the organ at the Monastery, I decided to dig around in my recordings of pieces when I rediscovered this little gem. Back in the early fall of 2014, the wonderful composer and performer Carson Cooman reached out to me for a commission. I have linked to his Youtube channel before as he has recorded a number of my works from my collection, Organbook.
The commission he requested was a work that could be performed on a small one stop instrument with no pedals, not quite in equal temperament, all the way to a four manual, 400 rank organ. This presented an interesting challenge that I decided to tackle through a historical form: the free fantasy. I also chose a mode that would work in any temperament, the dorian mode, hence the title. Here is a little of what I wrote for the program notes that addresses some of the specifics of the themes:
“The first theme is a descending chromatic motive, commonly found in a number of early keyboard works. The second theme is an original theme, sol-do-te-la-sol, with Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck in mind. Lastly, the work takes the form of an early rhetorical work with differing ideas contrasting each of the six sections of the work.”
Lastly, the recording was made on a really cool organ. Duquesne hosts the composer Paul Manz’ practice organ. Paul Manz was a well known composer of liturgical music and has a large number of liturgical works. I am not exactly sure how Duquesne ended up with it, but since it is a tracker with a limited stop list, I felt it could represent the Fantasia well. It is not a perfect recording (you can hear me pulling stops very well), but it shows how the piece can work on a small instrument. Perhaps I will record this on a larger instrument some day… Enjoy the piece!
I found another video with no blog post! In fact, this video has an early piece that I am really proud of. A quick story: I was nearing the end my (first) master’s degree at Duquesne and I had been working on the biggest piece I had ever composed at the time: the Seven Last Words (part 1, part 2). About two weeks before my recital, the organist I had originally asked dropped out. A friend of mine, Jaehee Kim stepped in and learned the organ part quickly and I believe the recital went very well.
In thanks to her, I wrote a piece for her with her name in it. The Seven Last Words is a very ponderous piece fitting Lent, Palm Sunday, and Good Friday very well. I wanted to write something in contrast, something as an expression of pure joy. This piece is that work and I love it. The two pieces together represent a high point of my early life as a composer. When I get around to revising the Seven Last Words (soon!), I’ll write more about my hindsight on these pieces.
The performance you hear in the recording is Jaehee’s Master’s recital premier at St. Paul Cathedral on the fabulous Beckerath organ there. Due to it’s German neo-Baroque design, I wrote a Prelude in the stylus fantasticus and a Fugue after J.S. Bach. The fugue contains Jaehee Kim’s name as the opening of the subject and ends with a quote similar to BWV 543. I am so happy to have Jaehee as a friend and am proud of this premier.
PS: The photo in the video is of the Monastery I work at, not St. Paul Cathedral.
Greetings post-Kansas City AGO National Convention! It’s Sunday and I am both rejuvenated and quite tired. There was so much: great music, workshops, and some very powerful worship ceremonies. I was particularly fond of the dance pieces I saw as they were very moving (pun intended – but seriously, I had to hold back tears). It was so nice to see old friends, make new ones, and there is never enough time to really take it all in. But of course, for me, the premier of the Sonata No. 1, was a high point.
I was commissioned by the National Convention to write a work that the average organist can play and that would be useful for both church services and concerts. In my mind, a sonata seems the perfect form for that expectation. Sonatas are fluid things: the individual movements can work independently while becoming a larger, cohesive whole when done together. Jennifer Pascual played the premier excellently. The Sonata No. 1 is available through Selah publishing. I am so proud and humbled to be presenting this to you all!
And now some shameless self-promotion. I have created a $5 coupon good for anything in the store. Just use “agokc2018” during checkout to receive the discount and enjoy the music you purchase. The coupon is good until the end of August and thank you for supporting my compositions. Happy playing out there! (PS: To be clear, the coupon works on my site, not Selah’s.)
Greetings to the new website! The biggest reason I haven’t posted in two months is because of preparing this new site. And here it is! Besides having the shop for my music and revising a number of works (and I am still revising), it is a pleasure to have something that closer resembles my vision than what the previous site had.
To that point, I present a new work, something I wrote as a complimentary work to a piece I arranged: Carlotta Ferrari’s Toccata sopra Crux Fidelis. Where the Toccata began the Good Friday service, Scrutari ended it (please note that the video for the Toccata says Palm Sunday, that is incorrect). In between there were many passion themed hymns. Behind the scenes though, we recorded this on Saturday before the Easter Vigil to get something better. We had just enough time to get one solid performance.
And while the recording is not perfect, it captures the aesthetic I was trying to achieve for a Good Friday meditation service. I hope that one day, I will be able to record it again in less time crunched circumstances. That and perhaps write more music for this instrumentation.
Happy Easter and greetings from the other side of Holy Week! It has been quite a month and a half since I last posted. My work at the Monastery had me quite busy, though not un-enjoyably so. Along with the usual amounts of work that Lent and Holy Week require, I was asked by my rector to put a program together for Good Friday. More specifically, he asked that I put together an ensemble (voice, violin, flute, and organ) and perform music under the vague title “Music of the Passion.” Honestly, it wasn’t too hard to find hymns for that setting, but finding instrumental music was definitely more challenging.
After spending too much time on IMSLP, I discovered a work for organ by the composer Carlotta Ferrari. I became familiar to her works because of Carson Cooman’s numerous Youtube recordings of her works. The piece titled, Toccata sopra Crux Fidelis, seemed perfect for the Good Friday program as the opening. I reached out to her and she loved the idea of the arrangement and I am so happy I did it. The score is available on the same IMSLP page as the organ version.
It has taken some time, but I finally finished recording and editing a video for the last movement of The Divine Office. I remember when writing this work facing a difficult decision: should I keep the contemplative nature of the offices, as one might actually experience or do I follow the logical conclusion of a multi-movement musical work? Well, the answer is the latter. Gotta end big.
With so many quiet movements, the work really needs something sparkling at the end. I mean that somewhat literally: I had the vastness of space and stars in mind. Compline happens in the middle of the night and in those ancient days, the stars are very visible. It is not programmatic, but growing up in Alaska and seeing the aurora borealis regularly, definitely sticks in one’s imagination.
Apparently, I have been sitting on this recording for a whole year! A few evenings ago, I spent some time finishing up my recordings of the Divine Office and I did not even realize that I had not posted the seventh movement, Vespers. And here it is!
In retrospect, I am happy that I get to post these last two movements together . They are somewhat of an impression of my late nights at the Monastery, particularly Saturday evenings. It is a very quiet place in the evenings, a place for contemplation and prayer. I tried to evoke the feeling I get when I am working in that quiet.
