All Things redux

I'd mentioned earlier about my version of All Things Bright and Beautiful (actually the tune Royal Oak) which I had intended to play in worship. At that time I was filling in at First Congregational Church in Berkeley CA. I ended up doing my organ variations rather than the piano piece I spent time on. I played my organ variations (totally separate from the piano piece) again this morning, as part of my swan song at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church--partly because the registration I used calls for the zimbelstern (high-pitched bells) near the end--it gives the music a bit of a music-box effect.
The first variation features a canon at the octave in the manuals over a simple 2-voice pedal part. I don't yet have any soundclips to accompany my score excerpts, but I'll add them later (it's hard to get a good recording while everyone is talking while I'm playing).

The second variation is more dramatic, with the first part of the hymn tune disguised but strongly influencing the melodic material.

The verse portion of the tune is set in contrasting fashion: repeated bass notes, sustained left-hand chords, right hand playing with fragments of the tune.

After a return to the beginning of the variation, the piece moves with a very slight break into variation 3.

It has its own intro, which returns between phrases of the tune (ok--it's a ritornello).

I had an 8' Principal in mind for the left-hand melody of variation 3. It works beautifully in Vaughan Williams' Rhosymedre. I wanted the same effect here.The right-hand material reappears in the following variation, as the hands switch material.

Variation 4 is the loudest, following directly on the heels of the previous variation, almost as thought it's the second half of a variation rather than a variation in its own right. Unlike previous variations, this one doesn't return to the refrain, but heads right into variation 5 (this is part of my feeling it as a second half rather than a separate variation).

This final variation is softer: sustain notes or slow-moving lines in the left hand; repeated 16ths in the right hand; melody in the pedal on a 4' stop. I also added the zimbelstern, since I had one on the instrument for which I wrote the piece (I may work out a handbell choir part at my new position). The piece returns to a quiet, reflective mood and prepares the congregation (those who are listening!) for worship.

Goodbye and Hello/Reflected Joy mp3s

I'm enjoying the process of getting ready for my new church position. I've also appreciated hearing from members of my soon to be former church (well, I'll still be a member, so it's not that former!). There's sadness in leaving--things left undone, potentials not reached--even as there are joys--events that went well, friendships made and strengthened, special times shared. And there's the anticipation of things to come, knowing that I am better for the last two years, even as I hope to share my gifts more fully.

Following up on a comment DanW made to my last post, I'm going to repost the score excerpts of Reflected Joy 2, accompanied by links to mp3s. Hey! Given that my blog is pretty new, and the only people who have commented are my daughter and son-in-law (thanks y'all; check's in the mail...), I'm darn well going to listen to 50% of my audience! (OK--others have been by, but they've not left much of a footprint...)

First excerpt and accompanying mp3. I'm not pleased with the sound quality of the mp3s: a wav file was made directly from my Finale score (so the performance is not very musical, IMHO), loaded into Audacity (a very nice sound editor for the money...i.e. free). After a little processing (normalizing, adding a little room presence) clips corresponding to the score excerpts were saved. I think the files are too big. It'll be interesting to see how they download and play. Comments, anyone?

Here's the second excerpt: and its mp3. For something a little different, listen to the whole piece in mp3 (a little over 2 minutes).

Perplexed Joy

Well, I'm not perplexed about my new position. It's now official: I'm the Music Director/Organist at John Knox Presbyterian Church in Dublin CA. The congregation is wonderful and there is great potential for growth. The "perplexed" in the title refers to my latest composition project. It's not over yet! I thought I had the piece for Amanda and Jeremy's wedding, but then I wrote another one! I'll have to pick one for the ceremony, but I'm well on the way to creating the suite of pieces I thought about in a previous post (two pieces finished; a good start on a third; can another one be far away?).

Like the previous Reflected Joy, this piece is based on themes from my son Jeremy's upcoming wedding to Amanda Riegle. The flavor of Jesu, Joy is quite evident, as you can see in the first excerpt. The Beethoven Ode to Joy presence is quite subtle at the beginning, with the first hints coming in the left hand 7 measures in. There's a much stronger statement towards the end of the piece in the treble clef--I know, I know: the right hand has a little juggling to do, but it IS playable! Although nobody would call this a neo-Baroque piece, it flows more gracefully than its companion work largely because of the 12/8 time signature and the three-measure open-ended phrases.

While I like the impressionistic flavor of one of the motives of the previous piece, as well as the dramatic shifts as now you see, now you don't see the Beethoven, the flowing character of this piece may be more appropriate for the ceremony. About halfway through there's an interesting juxtaposition of keys, as the piece moves from G major to E-flat to C to D in successive phrases. Originally I'd had the piece return to its starting key, but the V-I progression was out of character since none of the other key changes were modulations as much as voice leading.

What a delightful dilemma: do I play the first piece I finished, or this one, or write another? All while packing up boxes of music and books to move to my new position, finishing my Mom's estate, turning our "camping out" chez Dad into a more livable arrangement--and more. Life is wonderfully full.

Turning part 2: Reflected Joy

OK. I'm officially excited. They've offered me the position; we're ironing out some details. And I may have Jeremy and Amanda's piece done, at least to the point where I play it on piano, seeing if I can break it and then fix it (kind of a Quality Control approach). If you read on you'll notice that the excerpt I showed in my last post isn't part of this piece...because I started over. I often do that--a couple of false starts plus a job offer gets my creative energy flowing...[I won't drop my previous idea: it will have hints of Jesu, Joy--see below--and will probably lead to my writing a third or fourth piece so I can postnuptually offer Suite Joy to A & J]

So I noticed that the happy couple had picked Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring and Ode to Joy for walking in and walking out music. Even though I was writing an interlude sort of piece I wanted it to have some sort of liturgical connection by relating my piece to one of their choices. I developed three ideas--short motifs--and knitted them into the musical fabric (slightly too subtle reference to Marianne's knitting her "Mother of the Groom" dress). The first motive is based on the first three notes of Ode to Joy. There may be a reference to the running eighth notes of Jesu in the accompanying material, but that was unintentional. This motive is immediately varied (up an octave, expanded, softer), setting the context for similar developments of the other motivic material that followed. A second, contrasting idea functions more as punctuation.

I wanted the piece to be improvisatory in feeling; people like music with a Romantic or Impressionist flavor; a nice arpeggio seemed to fill the bill. Did I mention the title? Reflected Joy seemed appropriate on a number of levels: the word "joy" in the music they chose; my piece being a reflection or meditation on their choices; the joy that we feel at their joy in each other.

As I returned to the hymn tune I decided I didn't want to just go back to my first idea; the thought of Impressionism made me think more chromatically and led to the development of the third motive, which gets a (to me) surprisingly large amount of play in the piece. It's developed the most, it leads to a couple climax points, and allows for some quite satisfactory expressive playing.

Did I mention how much fun I was having writing this piece? It occured to me at some point--about a minute into this two-minute piece--that I hadn't actually stated more than three or four notes of the theme (Ode to Joy) so I decided to refer more clearly to it, even though I was putting it in musical parentheses. It's softer than surrounding material, presented over a relatively static pattern, so that it's actually a break in the action, and not the main idea.

At some point all this joy has to end. Translation: I was getting tired and was ready to call it a night and get some sleep. In addition, the piece had reached the 2-minute mark; it was in danger of becoming a musical elephant in the liturgical china shop, so it was time to end, which I did with a final reference to the end of Ode to Joy as it's usually done in hymnals...with a slight contemporary flavor. (Note that the lower stave is initially in treble clef). I've made a MIDI file of the score which will give you an idea of the piece until I get around to making a recording.

Turning the Corner

I visited my daughter Delara's blog today (link on sidebar). It's a great way to find out what's going on in her life. It's interesting that her latest post deals with life changes, particularly since I'm at one of those turning-points (albeit not a major one). In my last post I spoke about needing to get started on a piece of music for my son Jeremy's upcoming wedding. I've written about 30 seconds--the stuff's ok, but probably won't survive, at least without major changes.

I was wondering why I hadn't written more, and I realized that I'm still dealing with leaving a church position (I'm a church musician, if you're tuning in in mid-stream) earlier than I had planned with all of the unsettled feelings and unfinished business that goes with such an interruption. But as challenging as that all is, it represents a turning-point. Something new and exciting is coming.

I've interviewed for a new position. Even though the church is much smaller, the position fits me much better; it will be a good fit for everyone. I have a second interview shortly. It looks as though they're interested in me and I in them--I'm getting excited. So even though there's unfinished business and a sense of loss, at the same time there's renewed energy and a sense of growth.

So it's no wonder I haven't done much with Jeremy and Amanda's music. There hasn't been a lot of extra energy left for creativity. But the nice thing about turning corners is that your energy and creativity turn the corner too. And it's none too soon: the wedding is less than a month away! Let's see: what can I do with

Drawing a Blank, part 2

In an earlier post (Drawing a Blank) I mentioned the terror of the blank page, as one begins a new project. Well, I'm about to start, and so I'm working my way through and around that blank page (well, blank screen really, since I use the music notation program Finale). My son Jeremy and his fiancee Amanda are getting married in mid-August; they've asked me to write something to be played during the ceremony.

Jeremy and I talked about that tonight. It'll probably be no more than two minutes; played on piano. I asked about other service music: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring for the bride; Beethoven's Ode to Joy for the happy couple as they leave. Anyone for a little joy?

So I've started my precompositional planning. I need to decide on a style, develop a motivic idea or two (my wife Marianne suggested tossing in reference to a tune Jeremy sang when he was a kid--maybe...), and get some notes written. Not tonight, 'cause I'd like to get some sleep sometime and the last thing I need is to have the piece running through my brain. But it'll be working in the background anyway. Joy. Piano. Two minutes: barely enough time to get started; an eternity to complete. I'll let you know how it works out...

Ready to Fly

I was asked to play piano at a memorial service this morning. While there is often some sadness at such a service, there is also joy in celebrating life--especially the life of the one who died. There was much joy this morning. I usually play piano or organ before the service, lead hymns, maybe accompany a soloist, and play a postlude. Not today. Wonderful harp music before (turns out I knew the harpist decades ago when we were...much younger). And an outstanding duet by two members of Calaveras.

I guess I don't get out often enough. Greg and Vickie from Calaveras are consumate artists, with strong singing and instrumental work. They sang "Ready to Fly" from their latest CD (visit CDBaby and search for "Calaveras"). The song spoke of one not getting ready to die but rather getting ready to fly. A wonderful image that was especially appropriate this morning.

The song has a folk/celtic sound with strong lyrics and strong music. I don't buy a lot of CDs--particularly by people I hear at memorial services--but I just bought two of theirs. It was nice to be jolted out of my comfortable musical rut. I'll probably have more to say after I've heard their CDs.

All Things Bright and Beautiful...ptII

...All creatures great and small. So begins a hymn, sung to the tune Royal Oak, which I first set for piano in 2001 and, more recently, for organ. After getting up real early (see ATBaB pt I), checking out some Point-of-Sale software we're thinking of installing in Marianne's yarn store, I headed off to the church where I'll be guest organist for a couple of weeks.

In addition to playing a voluntary by William Walond (a contemporary of G. F. Handel in London), I decided to play one of my organ variations on All Things... but found it difficult to pull one variation out of what is a pretty robust set of variations. I checked out my piano variation and really liked it (well, duh! I did write it.). To make it more challenging (for probably both performer and listener--but see my closing comment) I wrote it in 3/4, while the original (see the excerpt above) is in 4/4. Here's how the first statement of the melody looks in 3/4:

Notice that the left hand gives a pretty pronounced downbeat, while the right hand floats above it all. When I play, I try to allow each hand to be metrically independent of the other. It's a little unsettling, but also a little surreal. Perhaps a reminder of how difficult it is to obtain beauty...

You may see hints of the melody in the tenor portion of the left hand, here doubling (the first two measures) and then following (the descending scale in the left hand in measure 4 imitating the descending scale in the right in measures 2 and 3). When the melody repeats, it comes in on beat 1, increasing the subtle canon...or so I hope!

The b or verse section handles the tension between 4 and 3 differently. In the original, the melody does this:This melody is a miniature masterpiece. As the verse continues, the melody rises to meet the beginning refrain. It's a neat way to make the refrain in this simple two-part form seam both fresh and inevitable.
I didn't want to do the same 3-against-4 procedure of the first part of my setting, so I fit the melody into its tighter quarters by eliminating repeated notes and shortening long notes:I stressed the lowness of the melody by moving it into the bass clef, and almost turned it into a sequential passage. Apart from just plain liking the tune, I have found that giving myself a musical challenge, like fitting 4 beats into 3, is compositionally stimulating--particularly since I want the result to be comfortable to the listener's ear. For all of my academic focus (rather ingrained after 25 years as a university music professor), this is no music for music's sake. I want to freshen people's ears while they hear something they know, even if they don't recognize it right away.

All Things Bright and Beautiful...pt I

...although, in light of this morning's explosions in London, it's sometimes a little harder to see the bright and beautiful as clearly. Still, daughter Delara had her morning commute only lengthened and not permanently put on hold. The day started early in California with a before-5:00 a.m. call saying she was ok. Both parents were relieved, even as we know other parents and friends and lovers and children won't be, feeling a loss that will hurt for a long time to come.

...silence...

What tangled webs we weave...

I didn't mean to take so long between posts, but between the start of a search for a new church music position and some substantial work on my website, my creative energy was tied up in knots. It's been fun to work on the website--certainly more fun than working on my job search! I started off with some pages I had put together on a short early April vacation with a combination of hand coding and Netscape Composer. As I came back to the project last week, I used Arachnophilia for a bit. It supports handcoding, but is a bit cryptic to figure out. I decided to load a copy of Dreamweaver I've not been using lately, and I'm in love.

I set things up so that the website mirrors my web directory on my computer. The uploading is automatic, which I find to be quite slick. As long as I don't goof and save over something I didn't intend to lose, it'll be great. (The answer, of course, is to back everything up.) Dreamweaver gives me a combination of "what you see" and handcoding that I find quite helpful. It's actually akin to my notation software (I use Finale, but Sibelius and others work much the same way). In the case of the notation software, I can look at the notes, or listen to MIDI playback, jsut as with DW I can look at the file, or see the behind-the-scenes code.

I'm intending to use my website as an every-growing catalog. While it's relatively static, I'm hoping to apply the sort of approach I took with my earlier post here about Ellacombe, where I provide program notes and a little background info along with excerpts from the music. I hope I haven't set me too much of a task. To see what I'm trying, check out my pages on a variation set for flute and piano (see discussion and excerpts). Since I'm hoping to provide enough information so that some performers might decide my stuff is worth working on, I'm trying to give them enough information to make an informed decision.

I attended a very nice organ recital at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco on Sunday (July 3, 2005). Ansgar Wallenhorst, a German organist, held forth at the might Ruffatti. I'll have a couple of comments on this delightful event soon.