Rehearsal Preparation

For the upcoming CFAGO performance of The Crucifixion by John Stainer, there is a website offering midi files to download or listen to here. If you need a score, there are public domain versions available here. I am also in the process of setting the hymns “American style” for download here.

Listed below are .mp3 files for each voice part of my composition Ubi Caritas. Depending upon the browser, it may be necessary to control-click on the download link in order to save the file to disk.

  • Soprano –
    1. Download     
    2. Listen now     

  • Alto –
    3. Download     
    4. Listen now     

  • Tenor –
    5. Download     
    6. Listen now     

  • Bass –
    7. Download     
    8. Listen now     

A Cappella Magic

This recording by the Basilica Choir and William Picher includes my composition Salve Regina. The piece was written specifically for them, and I was delighted that they chose to include it on their recording.

The CD is available for sale for $15 plus shipping and handling. It is also available at iTunes for immediate download here. This is the complete track list:

  1. Haec Dies (William Byrd)
  2. O Bone Jesu (Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina)
  3. Verbum Caro Factus Est (Hans Leo Hassler)
  4. Alma Redemptoris Mater (Palestrina)
  5. Regina Caeli Laetare (Antonio Lotti)
  6. Riu, Riu, Chiu (Anon. Spanish)
  7. Exsultate Deo (Palestrina)
  8. I See His Blood Upon the Rose (Michael Bedford)
  9. At the Cross Her Station Keeping (13th cent., arr. Richard Proulx)
  10. Were You There? (Spiritual, arr. Harry T. Burleigh)
  11. Gabriel’s Message (Basque Carol, arr. Jonathan Rathbone)
  12. Ave Maria (Marshall Webb)
  13. Set Me As a Seal (René Clausen)
  14. Tota Pulchra Es (Maurice Duruflé)
  15. Hail Mary (William Picher)
  16. Hail Holy Queen (Salve Regina, arr. Derric Johnson)
  17. I Saw Three Ships (English Carol, arr. Marshall Webb)
  18. Salve Regina
  19. Deep River (Spiritual, arr. Norman Luboff)
  20. Ain’t-a that Good News (Spiritual, arr. William Dawson)

Choral Mass

Event Description:

Experience Palestrina’s sublime a cappella choral masterpiece, “Missa Papae Marcelli” in the context of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Also includes the premier of two new compositions in the style of Palestrina- a setting of Psalm 23 and Salvator Mundi– by Wm. Glenn Osborne who will serve as organist for the celebration. Bishop John Noonan will preside.
The Basilica Choir under the direction of William Picher.
All are welcome, no tickets required.

Event Date

Friday, 2/22/2013

Event Time

7:00pm

Event Venue

Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe
8300 Vineland Avenue
Orlando, Florida 32821
407-239-6600

NaSoAlMo 2012

For years several years, my wife has participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Thanks to the DIY Musician podcast, I discovered that there is a musical equivalent: National Solo Album Month (NaSoAlMo). The goal of NaSoAlMo is to write and record a solo album of original compositions lasting at least 29 minutes during the month of November. While I’ve been kicking around a couple ideas for albums for a while, the challenge for me for NaSoAlMo is that it is a solo album and all the music must be written during that month. The other ideas I’ve been preparing require a chorus and/or other instrumentalists so will not fit the guidelines. Even so, I think I should be able to put together at least a half-hour of music and record it in one month. Check back for updates as the month progresses!

Psalms, Psalms, and more Psalms

While I was at the University of Notre Dame pursuing my Master’s degree, I served as organist at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. Inspired by the stories of Johann Sebastian Bach writing a cantata every week, I took it as my own challenge to write a psalm setting every week while I was there. The choir and cantors there became my compositional laboratory, and I turned out probably 100 psalm settings during my two years there.

I dropped this practice when I went to France to study, but resumed it again when I became music director at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, NY. While I would have liked to reuse some of my settings from Indiana, unfortunately, most of the scores I did were minimal vocal only scores without notation for any keyboard part. Sometimes, I could figure out what I had intended to play at the keyboard, but other times, the music was effectively lost in time. In order to encourage congregational singing, many of my psalm settings written in Albany used phrases from hymn tunes to make the refrains readily accessible to the people.

Once I moved to Orlando, I had no need to compose weekly psalm settings. My catalog had also grown to include at least once setting for almost all of the three-year lectionary cycle, so when I was given the opportunity to use my own settings, I generally had something to pull out of the file cabinet ready to go. With the release of the Revised Grail Psalter and my understanding that this would be the new preferred translation for the Roman Catholic Church, I have decided once again to turn out weekly psalm settings using the new translation. No hymn tunes this time – only original music. (This collection has been published as the Audubon Park Psalter.)

Please feel free to contact me if you would like to consider using my psalm settings at your local church.

Papal Alleluias

Dr. Jennifer Pascual asked me to make the orchestral arrangements of the Alleluias for the Papal Masses in New York city in 2008. The Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral would use the Alleluia refrain from O Filii et Filiae. The Mass at Yankee Stadium used the refrain from VICTORY. Even though the melodic material was given, I knew I would have great players in the orchestra and a top-notch choir, so I had great fun making these arrangements.

CatholicTV still has the Mass from St. Patrick’s available here and the Mass at Yankee Stadium here. At Yankee Stadium, the Alleluia starts at 100 minutes into (about half-way through) the coverage on CatholicTV.

I wasn’t sure any of the broadcast video would still be up, so I went looking on YouTube first and found this excerpt which includes my arrangement of the Alleluia before the gospel is proclaimed:

Rejoice in the Lord

Gaudete in Domino semper:
iterum dico, gaudete.
Rejoice in the Lord always,
and again I say rejoice.

This musical setting of text from the introit for the third Sunday of Advent is written for unaccompanied SATB choir. The lyrics use both Latin and English phrases from the introit. The music alternates between short unison chant sections and longer polyphonic sections based on ideas found in the original Gregorian chant.

To You I Lift My Soul

Ad te levavi animam meam:
Deus meus in te confido.
Non erubescam.
To You, I lift up my soul.
I trust in you.

This musical setting of text from the introit for the first Sunday of Advent is written for unaccompanied SATB choir. The lyrics use both Latin and English phrases from the introit. The music alternates between short unison chant sections and longer polyphonic sections based on ideas found in the original Gregorian chant.