Category: Compositions

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Papal Alleluias

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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:

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Rejoice in the Lord

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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.

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To You I Lift My Soul

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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.

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Psalm 146 – Praise the Lord!

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This psalm setting was commissioned by Elsa Heckman for the music ministry of Our Lady of Grace in Palm Bay, FL on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the parish. In discussing with Elsa that kind of composition she wanted for the event, we decided that an upbeat Gospel style setting would be most appealing for the occasion and the congregation. The two recordings below are from a live performances at Holy Cross in Orlando in 2011.

1. Listen now - Morning Mass     
2. Listen now - Afternoon Mass     
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Psalm à la Mozart Part 2

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I don’t think I could be more happy with how the performance turned out. Sarah Whittemore, the Basilica Choir, and orchestra all did a wonderful job with the psalm! Listen to the live performance below to hear for yourself.

1. Listen now     

Read about how this piece came to be here.

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Psalm à la Mozart

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For the Mozart Coronation Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe, Dr. William Picher asked if I’d like to collaborate on the musical setting of the psalm to be used at Mass that evening. Since most of the music for Mass is by Mozart, he had found a phrase from a Mozart string quintet to use as the refrain and asked if I’d write music for the verses. Bill has used several of my psalm settings previously, so was looking for a simple tone much like those I’ve sent him previously.
After having a look at the last movement of K. 516 that Bill used for the refrain, I found a portion of the string quintet that lent itself as a nice chord progression for the psalm verses. Knowing that there would at least be strings available, it made sense to me to create an entire orchestration for the composition. A recording of the live performance is now available here.

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Vexilla Regis

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Written by Venantius Fortunatus (530-609), Vexilla Regis is one of the great chant hymns of the church. Appropriately sung at vespers from Passion Sunday until Holy Thursday, on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross and even on Good Friday, the hymn was originally written to celebrate the arrival of a large relic of the True Cross in Poitiers, France.

In the French Classical tradition when singing hymns, the organ alternated verses with the choir. Having always enjoyed the sounds of the French Classical organs, when I had the opportunity to play a recital at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Albany, NY on Palm Sunday, I decided to write a suite for organ on this great hymn of the cross. The suite contains six movements and uses traditional tonal language and registrations of the period.

Vexilla Regis

  1. Plein jeu
  2. Duo
  3. Récit de voix humaine
  4. Basse de trompette
  5. Tierce en Taille
  6. Grand jeu
1. Listen now     
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Festival Celebration Choir

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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.

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Music for Papal Visit to NYC

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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.

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NPM Mass Competition

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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.

1. Listen now