Here This Christmas Night

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.

Holiday Brass Composition Premier

Returning this year to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen is the 13th Annual Holiday Brass Concert. Proceeds from the concert will benefit the International Women’s Brass Conference. Included on the concert will be the premier performance of Here This Christmas Night. Scored for soprano, trumpet, and organ, the music was composed by Wm. Glenn Osborne for text by John Dalles.

Tickets can be purchased by calling 410 337-7539: Adults $26.00, Seniors/Students $23.00.

Premier of Watch! Take Care!

The first performance of my composition Watch! Take Care! Your Hearts Prepare! will take place during Mass on the Fourth Sunday of Advent at the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe. The Basilica Choir under the direction of William Picher will sing the piece at both the 9:30 and 11:30am Masses. The piece is a setting of a text by John Dalles for unaccompanied SATB choir.

Watch! Take care! Your hearts prepare!

Written for SATB Choir, unaccompanied, this piece is a setting of and Advent text by John Dalles based upon Mark 13:33-37. It will be premiered during the season of Advent by the Basilica Choir under the direction of William Picher. Scores will be available for purchase after the premier.

Anniversaries: How to look ahead

LakeEolaFireworksHappy anniversary!

With this newsletter, I celebrate my one-year publication anniversary. In case you missed that first issue, you can still see it here (and all the issues are listed here). Thank you to everyone for taking the time to share in my adventures of the past year. I hope they have been as enjoyable for you to read as for me to write!

While we often stop at the end of the calendar year to review where we’ve been and plan for the next year, it can be helpful to have a checkup and review at any anniversary moment. Where were you one year ago today? What have you accomplished in the last year? Did you meet your goals? If not, where did you fall short? Did you manage to completely blast them out of the water? How much further would you like to go in the next year? What can you do today to move you closer to where you’d like to be?

Current Assessment

One of the magnets on our fridge is a quote from Teddy Roosevelt: “Do what you can, where you are, with what you have!” To plan for the future, you have to start with the present. Where are you now? What skills and resources do you have now? It doesn’t matter if you don’t like your current situation. Ignoring a problem or difficulty, won’t make it go away — it might just make it worse. Far better to know what is the status quo rather then pretend it to be different. To plan a trip, you not only have to know the destination, but you’re starting point as well. If you are trying to get to Carnegie Hall, it’s a completely different trip to plan if you are starting in Florida, Peru, or lower Manhattan. Trying to fly there from lower Manhattan makes as much sense as trying to walk there from Peru. Sometimes the preferred means of progress (flying in this case) might not be the best option. The only way to know is a thorough evaluation of the current state of affairs.

Action

Despite many people’s fascination with the law of attraction, I think one of the other key points from Teddy Roosevelt’s quote above is the first word: Do. Newton formulated the law in physics that tells us a body at rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Wishing or planning how to accomplish something is not the same as doing. Even Yoda urges us to action: “Do or do not. There is no try.” Our modern day GPS devices are excellent at getting us from point a to point b, as long as we are in motion. If we miss a turn, it will recalculate and adapt. If we stop moving, I’ve seen many GPS devices get confused and start giving very odd instructions. Just like pilots on a long-distance flight, we need to start moving in the general direction, and then make adjustments as we approach our destination. While planning can be an appropriate action, just don’t expect it to get you to the destination without starting up the engine and moving.

CFCArtsMozartSingleMassMoving Forward

While I may still be in the patient maintenance mode of preparing the next crop, there is a concert this Friday that I will be playing. Last year in my first newsletter issue, the concert was Mozart’s Requiem. This year, it’s the Mass in C Minor, K 427. (I think next summer, we’ll be planning something other than Mozart.)

I find it interesting to note that Mozart left this piece unfinished. As we take a moment to celebrate this newsletter anniversary, what projects have you left unfinished? One that I recently was able to finish was to get the video from a performance in May up on-line. You can now hear the Bel Canto Choir of Gateway High School under the direction of Chris Barletta sing my composition Faith is Like a Mystic Spirit (text by John Dalles) by clicking here. Now I need to finish up that other piece I started for them…

Hoping your projects come to a happy conclusion,

Glenn
Newsletter Issue 26 – 2014 08 05
See the complete list of newsletter issues here.
Sign up to receive future issues using the box to the right on this page.

Faith Is Like a Mystic Spirit

Written May 11-2, 2014 for Chris Barletta and the Women’s Choir of Gateway High School in Kissimmee, Florida, with the first performance given at the Baccalaureate Mass at the end of May 2014. The text is by John Dalles and is included in the collection We Turn to God published by Wayne Leupold Editions.

The piece is scored for SSA with piano accompaniment. It is fairly easy and very tonal. Expected duration: c. 2’30”

Premier of Faith Is Like a Mystic Spirit

A new composition by Wm. Glenn Osborne with lyrics by John Dalles will be premiered during the baccalaureate service of Gateway High School by the Bel Canto Choir under the direction of Chris Barletta. Faith Is Like a Mystic Spirit is for SSA choir with piano accompaniment. The lyrics are published in the collection of hymn texts We Turn to God published by Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc.

Premier of God, Your Golden Doorway Beckons

A new composition by Wm. Glenn Osborne with lyrics by John Dalles will be premiered during the baccalaureate service of Gateway High School by the Bel Canto Choir under the direction of Chris Barletta. Further details about the event will be posted once the piece is actually written! Check back soon for more info.

This event has been replaced by the Premier of Faith Is Like a Mystic Spirit.

God, Your Golden Doorway Beckons will be premiered on May 30 (in unison) at the Graduation Mass for Holy Redeemer Catholic School. More information about that event is available here.