Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to perform Faure’s Requiem on numerous occasions. While flipping through my photo album this afternoon, I came across the poster from the performance that we did in Albany six months after 9/11. It’s hard to believe that the concert was ten years ago this month.
One of my many pleasures during my tenure in Albany was working with the Festival Celebration Choir. Founded by my predecessor at the Cathedral, J. Robert Sheehan, the group was initially quite large. By the time I encountered the group, it had become a more moderate 60-80 voices. While under its second director, Deacon Neil Hook, I was offered several opportunities to accompany the choir for different concerts, including a presentation of the Mozart Requiem on June 6, 2004. The group even commissioned me to write a Te Deum for them. Eventually, Neil decided it was time for him to retire as the group’s conductor and passed the baton to me. Regrettably, only a year later, I had to pass the baton along again as my tenure in Albany came to a close and new opportunities awaited for me in Orlando.
Dr. Jennifer Pascual has been a good friend of mine for several years now. At the conclusion of the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians in January (2008) over lunch as she was taking me to the Newark airport for my return flight to Orlando, she asked if I would be willing and able to help her with the orchestral music arrangements for the Papal visit in April. While I was immediately interested in helping her out, my one request was that if I were to do any of the arrangements, I really wanted to be there to hear them live. Thankfully, she was able to find a spot for me in the choir.
My wife, Karen, came along to cover the event for The Florida Catholic and The Evangelist wrote a nice little article about the music and my connection to the diocese there.
The Orlando Liturgical Conference takes place every two years and brings lots of wonderful presenters to the area. With the implementation of the new translation of the Roman Missal the primary focus of the conference in 2011, we had a spectacular line up of speakers. Read more about it in The Florida Catholic.
The Florida Catholic did a nice profile on the new organ at St. James Cathedral while it was being installed. They even have pictures of all the parts spread out across the floor here.
The Third Edition of the Roman Missal presented opportunities for composers to create new musical settings of the texts used for celebration of Mass. The National Association of Pastoral Musicians took advantage of the opportunity to sponsor a competition. All entries were to be judged initially by a panel of five judges. The final winner was determined by popular vote after presentation at the convention in Detroit. The entire competition was conducted blindly with even the finalists only being announced after the voting had taken place. The musical setting of the new translation of the Mass that I submitted was awarded third place.
You can here the Lamb of God with choir, strings, and flute below.
I have been very thankful for the generosity of John Dalles in sharing his unpublished texts with me. I discovered his published texts while I was serving at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, NY, making use of them on several different occasions. After moving to Orlando, I was delighted to discover that he resides in the area. We first met after the local AGO chapter held an event at the church where he serves. Since then, he has been kind enough to share several of his texts with me. As you can read in his biography below, it was a great pleasure for me to discover such a wonderful hymn writer here in my back yard.
A Presbyterian minister and hymn writer, John Dalles has served as Pastor of Wekiva Presbyterian Church, Longwood FL since 1997. He is a graduate of Penn State, Lancaster Seminary (M.Div.) and Pittsburgh Seminary (D.Min.). Before Wekiva, he served Fox Chapel Presbyterian in Pittsburgh (1986-1997) and First Presbyterian, South Bend (1982-1986). Author of more than 800 hymn texts, John’s “Come, O Spirit” and “God Bless Your Church” are in the Presbyterian Hymnal. His hymns are also in: The New Century Hymnal, The Moravian Book of Worship, Worship Together, The Covenant Hymnal, The Book of Praise (Presbyterian Church in Canada) and The Australian Book of Praise II. His commissioned hymns include those for Presbyterian Heritage Sunday, Augsburg, Goshen, Maryville, Tusculum,
Wilson and Knox (Toronto) Colleges, American University, Pittsburgh and Lancaster Seminaries, Peachtree Presbyterian Church and the Lutheran World Federation. A Life Member of The Hymn Society, he is the author of a book of 65 hymn texts called “Swift Currents and Still Waters” by GIA: www.giamusic.com. Wayne Leupold Editions has recently published two other collections: “God Is the Singer’s Friend” and “We Turn to God”.
Regina caeli laetare, Alleluia,
Quia quem meruisti portare. Alleluia,
Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia.
Ora pro nobis Deum. Alleluia.
Intended for use during the Easter Season, this is the second Marian antiphon I set for SSAATTBB choir. The traditional chant melody is cast in a modern tonal language. A piano reduction of the SSAATTBB piece provided in the score for rehearsals. The audio below was generated by the Finale music notation program.
A Christmas carol for unaccompanied SATB choir. Lyrics by John Dalles. The piece is included on the recording “Christmas with the Basilica Choir.” and is also available on iTunes and may be heard on Spotify.
A Christmas carol for SATB choir with some changing meter. Lyrics by John Dalles. Instrumental parts available upon request.