SKU: A0.836716

For many years I have enjoyed playing the simpler manualiter chorale preludes of Zachau and J. G. Walter in the old Peters edition many organists will be familiar with. Then there are the delightful little preludes of Ernst Pepping which I first heard as a teenager in a recording by E. Power Biggs. I had something of a cross between these two influences in mind for this new set of English preludes. There are some finger-twisting moments here and there, but by and large these manuals-only pieces are meant to be shorter, more direct, and simpler (in concept, if not execution!) than my larger sets of preludes. The hymns dealt with here represent a useful mix of liturgical purposes and include Holy, Holy, Holy!, Come, Thou Almighty King, When Morning Gilds the Skies, Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates, All Things Bright and Beautiful, Beneath the Cross of Jesus, The Church’s One Foundation, and Christ the Lord is Risen Today. As always, sources and timings are included and the score prints in landscape format.

SKU: A0.836708

Full disclosure: This work is frankly atonal. Rhythms are tricky. Harmonies are unconventional to say the least. And even the form is nicely aberrant.

Yet something magical happens when writing for winds: because of the weak timbre contact between the different instruments, one can write complex textures without losing clarity. One can write dissonant harmonies without having them sound harsh and grating. In fact, there are moments of surprising beauty here. Take for instance the color canons, passages combining all instruments in clusters whose harmonic and rhythmic motion is essentially static, but which shimmer with ever-changing timbres.

The title translates - inexactly - to Keeper of Heaven, or Starry Watchman, or Celestial Caretaker, and refers to an imaginary character whose task it is to walk about the heavens at sunset and turn on the stars. He is the galactic equivalent of the old gentlemen who once went about Victorian streets, lighting the gas lamps and generally keeping an eye on things, making sure that all is well. I do not claim that this character is God the Father Almighty, only that he is an old gentleman. But there might very well be something wizard-ish about him!

Performance time is approximately seven and a half minutes. The audio excerpt included here is of the last two minutes, where the music comes the closest to being tonal.

SKU: A0.836709

A piece shrouded in mystery and intrigue. For myself, I mean: I don’t even know what the title means, nor why this particular piece should wear it. The music and the title came as a package deal, falling on me out of the blue one day. It wasn’t on my to-do list, nor was I looking for extra work. But perhaps that’s the answer: the piece itself is the Agent, breaking into my nicely ordered studio and disrupting things for the next few months. I’ll have to think about this some more.

But I digress. Whatever its meaning or provenance, it’s an odd little sonatina. For instance, at its heart the second movement is a traditional scherzo and trio, but it is as misshapen as anything H. P. Lovecraft himself might have envisioned. Even I am not sure where the beginnings and endings of the sections are without a score in hand. Mystery upon mystery.  

Another example: as I began to work on the third movement, I wasn’t sure if it would be a simple binary or ternary form, a rondo or a sonata-allegro. I never did find out, to be honest. All I know is that, to my ears, it sounds like what might have resulted if I had been asked to write the theme to The Simpsons. The audio sample will give you some idea of what I mean.

More questions than answers.

Performance time is a little under 14 minutes.

SKU: A0.836706

A couple of lifetimes ago (or so it seems now) I wrote a quartet of sonatas: one apiece for flute, viola, oboe, and the present work for cello. I thought of them as representing Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter respectively. This one, dating from 1972, expands the concept of a rondo to dimensions covering an entire multi-movement sonata. There are the traditional three movements one would expect to find, but they are tied together through unmetered sections for solo cello set between them. In this way, the true movements almost function as episodes in a giant rondo. Additionally, the solo interpolations form an entity in themselves, each picking up where the previous one left off. And if that weren’t enough, thematic material in the real movements is often first presented in the Interpolations, so it is difficult to tell where an idea really belongs. Given my philosophical leanings at the time (it was the 70s, remember!), this ambiguity was precisely the point.

Performance time is approximately 12 minutes.

SKU: A0.836715

A Violin Sonata written in 2019, but which sounds more like 1869? There’s a reason for that: apart from the obvious and enjoyable challenge of writing an extended faux-19th century piece, the sonata is dedicated to the memory of my mother who - being a Brahms & Tchaikovsky gal through and through - had little use for music written after 1900. For instance, I remember when I was a lad and my father and I would listen to Stravinsky’s Le Sacre, Mom would always go out for a walk until it blew over.

The Sonata has four movements: I. Largo-Moderato (7:10), II. Allegretto (5:00), III. Andante (7:00), IV. Bagatelles. Allegro non troppo (6:00). Total performance time is about 25 to 26 minutes.

The audio file accompanying this description gives you a couple of minutes of each movement: most of the exposition of I; the end of the Scherzo and beginning of the Trio (with its curious three-measure phrases) of II; the closing measures of III; and the beginning of IV.

(The sonata has been read by professional players and is guaranteed to work, but at this writing it has not been performed or recorded. Therefore the audio file is only a computer playback. Living musicians will be able to make far more sense of it.)

SKU: A0.836712

If you ever need a break from the soundbyte theology found in so many contemporary Christian lyrics, why not revisit the words of Isaac Watts (1674-1748), who could stretch a single coherent thought across multiple verses of his hymns? Watts was a prolific writer on many subjects, including geography, astronomy, ethics, and psychology. His book on Logic became a standard university text, being used at Oxford for over 100 years. But his greatest desire was to assist Christians in the worship of God and it is his hymns for which he is best remembered today.

These old words are here set to new music which represents a blending of three different traditions: First, and most obvious, is the rustic sound of early American shape-note singing. Second is the strong linearity of 13th century Ars Antiqua voice leading, in which each part was more or less independent. And third is my own fondness for mixed meters and sonorities built on fourths and seconds. Yet it all works somehow: these are actually very singable hymns once the choir has acclimated to the style. Most fall comfortably into a simple diatonic language and would present no jarring problems for the listener. Five of the hymns are for standard mixed voices (SATB); one is for men’s voices (TTB); one for women’s (SSA) and the last, a Doxology, is in six parts (SSATTB) with a florid threefold amen.

There is admittedly a certain sameness about these settings; perhaps it’s best if they are not all sung in one go, cover to cover. Taken individually, however, there is no reason they couldn’t make for a refreshing change from the usual church anthem, and a group of three or four could easily find a place on a choral recital program.

SKU: A0.836707

What’s Christmas without a few toys?

Here is a new suite of older carols for string quartet in which each musician is required to play a wee bit of percussion in addition to his or her real instrument. The potential for entertaining visual theater is nearly as high as the potential for mishap. (If all goes according to plan, nothing should actually go airborne.)

This is something of a sequel to my earlier Christmas quartet And Therefore Be Merry, which has never been out of print since it was first published over twenty years ago. But where that work was a continuous medley, this is a set of independent and more fully developed movements, each able to stand on its own.

As mentioned above, each member of the quartet is responsible for a small item of percussion. These are all things which could readily be found in a local school band room: a triangle, a tambourine, a suspended cymbal - played with a soft (yarn) stick - and a small frame drum, played with the bare hand.

These are all earlier, earthier carols than what one typically finds on the radio or playing over the speakers at the mall. They include Gloucestershire Wassail, Riu Riu Chiu, Angelus ad Virginem, The Sans Day Carol, The Wexford Carol, and Masters in This Hall. Being perhaps less familiar, they bring a welcome respite from the overworked seasonal fare we all hear a bit too much of each year. They speak of simpler times, and of a far less frantic approach to Christmas. These fresh and inventive arrangements will make a useful addition to a quartet’s repertoire, provided the players have the requisite spirit of adventure.

Score and Parts total 67 pages. Performance time is about 14 minutes.