Category: Compositions

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A Child Is Born

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I always enjoy programs that have a theme or structure to unite the musical selections. Liturgical seasons like Lent, Easter, Advent or Christmas are easy ways to collect repertoire from diverse musical periods under the same
umbrella. After Out of the Depths: Music for Lent and Holy Week, I chose to turn to the more joyful seasons of Advent and Christmas for this, my second recording project. In addition to the eclectic set of reperoite, I have included several improvisations because that area of music-making continues to be my primary interest. Includes the premier presentation of the Advent Suite.

Program:
Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645 – Johann Sebastian Bach
Advent Suite – Wm. Glenn Osborne
I. Introit
II. Offertory
III. Elevation
IV. Communion
V. Sortie
Nun komm der heiden Heiland, BWV 659 – J. S. Bach
Nun komm der heiden Heiland, BWV 660 – J. S. Bach
Nun komm der heiden Heiland, BWV 661 – J. S. Bach
Improvisation on “Lo, How a Rose” – Wm. Glenn Osborne
March upon a theme by Handel, Op. 15, No. 2 – Alexandre Guilmant
Prelude on “Divinum Mysterium” – T. Frederick H. Candlyn
Chorale Prelude on “Silent Night”, Op. 37 – Samuel Barber
Improvisation on “Away in a Manger” – Wm. Glenn Osborne
Variations on ‘Ons is gheboren een kindekijn’, SwWV 315 – Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Noël Suisse – Louis-Claude Daquin
Improvisation on “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” – Wm. Glenn Osborne
A Festive Voluntary: Variations on “Good King Wenceslas” – Petr Eben

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Advent Suite

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As part of a series of articles on Charles Tournemire at www.organimprovisation.com, I set about to actually compose a suite modeled on L’orgue mystique. Tournemire did not write much music for Advent, so I decided to use familiar melodies from that season as themes for each movement.

The melodies included are as follows: 1) O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (VENI EMMANUEL); 2) Savior of the Nations Come (NUN KOMM DER HEIDEN HEILAND); 3) Creator of the Stars of Night (CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM); 4) The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came (GABRIEL’S MESSAGE); 5) O Come, Divine Messiah (VENEZ, DIVIN MESSIE), People, Look East (BESANÇON), and a return of O Come,
O Come, Emmanuel.

After starting the work in 2016, I finally completed the suite for the recording released in 2017, A Child Is Born.

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Hymn Tune Psalter

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On my way to creating a complete cycle of psalms with refrains based on hymn tunes, I’ve decided to start a list of currently available settings with video recordings. This post will be updated as I have more material to include.

Here’s the current list:

  • Psalm 24 – Let the Lord Enter (BESANÇON)
  • Psalm 40 – Here am I Lord (JESUS IN THE MORNING)
  • Psalm 67 – May God Bless Us (PUER NOBIS)
  • Psalm 72 – Justice Shall Flourish (EIN FESTE BURG)
  • Psalm 95 – If Today You Hear God’s Voice (ADORO TE DEVOTE)
  • Psalm 96 – Today Is Born Our Savior
  • Psalm 146 – Blessed are the poor in spirit (BEACH SPRING)
  • Psalm 147 – Praise the Lord Jerusalem (EASTER HYMN)
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Wedding Chorale Video

Video

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After a few years of sitting figuratively “in the closet collecting dust,” I finally had an opportunity to brush up and record this composition for organ and brass quintet which I composed in 2014 for the wedding of my brother-in-law. This was written as the entrance procession for the attendants and bride to enter. There is a second movement for the recessional that I hope to get recorded as well.

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Dilexisti justitiam from Chrism Mass

Video

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After using the piece for several years at Chrism Mass in Orlando and Baltimore, I finally was able to capture a live performance recording to share. This was recorded (on my iPhone) at the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore on 10 April 2017. The Archdiocesan choir had one rehearsal with the piece, though some of the people have sung it previously. There is a brass quintet playing choir two.

Scores are available for purchase here.

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Passion Chorale

Video

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Written for a colleague who was searching for a Dupré-style setting of the Passion Chorale for use as a postlude on Palm Sunday, this piece was written in 2015 and will likely grow into either a larger set of variations on the tune or a collection of short pieces for Lent and/or Holy Week. Here’s the video from when I played it as the postlude for Mass this weekend.

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Here This Christmas Night

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A solo piece for soprano, organ, and trumpet written for and premiered at the Holiday Brass concert at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore, MD on 29 November 2016. Video of the premier performance is below:

Downloadable score packet includes part for Trumpet in Bb and in C.

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Immaculate Mary

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ave-maria-3000x3000In 2010, for a Marian celebration when William Picher hired 2 trumpets, strings, flute and timpani for a Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe, he asked me for an arrangement of Immaculate Mary. As this is a popular hymn for many Marian feasts, I eventually prepared a solo organ accompaniment version of the score. This reduced arrangement is included in their most recent CD of Marian Music: Ave Maria. It was always a pleasure to work with and write music for the Basilica Choir while I was in Orlando, and I am delighted that they continue to sing (and record) compositions and arrangements that I did for them.

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Hymn Tune Psalms

Video

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One of the challenges in the Roman Catholic Church is trying to find ways to encourage and enable the congregation to sing. Unless you use a seasonal psalm refrain, this generally means the congregation has a new melody to learn every week with the responsorial psalm. Sure, you can build up a repertoire over time, but there’s not a lot of repetition in the three-year lectionary cycle. One of the easiest ways to learn a piece is through repetition, so I decided to use hymn tunes as melodies for the psalms. This reinforces the singing of the hymns and gives something familiar to the people for the psalm. I created numerous of these settings while at the Cathedral in Albany and now am in the process of revising them (and perhaps finishing the set) to go with the new Revised Grail Psalms. We used the first of these new revised hymn tune psalms at Mass this weekend for Advent 2.
Psalm 72 – Justice Shall Flourish
Refrain based on EIN FESTE BURG with Gelineau-style tone by Wm. Glenn Osborne