A call for new, large seasonal choral work
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    To Francis, Heath, Ian, Noel, JMO, Frank LR, Richard, JQ, JH, Ari, Chuck, JDE and all composers that the Shadow knows:

    I'm too darn lazy and busy to compose my own Tenebrae, Passion setting, Miserere, De Profundis, or anything else Pasch related this here year.
    Would any of y'all be interested in sending a large choral work for SATB/organ, optional chamber instruments and soloist(s) (and no dang geetars!) to our humble digs for our Paschal Seasonal concert?
    We've done Faure, Duruflame, Rutter, Leavitt, Mozart Requiems. We've done Victoria Passion a number of times, that doesn't really count as we also employed them at liturgy.
    If no one wants some guinea pigs to try on their work, I'll, I'll, I'll....
    just have to go to Pepper and search "Joseph Martin or Craig Courtney! I'll do it, I swear. Save me from myself!
    Or just link me to something really cool at CPDL.
    I'm old and infirm, prone to crankiness an' all.
    And as a special added bonus if you act now- I'll mention your name kindly in SLC!!! Shipping included.
  • Heath
    Posts: 934
    Charles, I'm flattered to even be mentioned among such a group...unwarranted, but I thank you all the same.

    I whipped up some "turba" choruses for the sung St. John Passion which I'll share in a week or so...but I've yet to attempt an undertaking as you mention above. I've written almost exclusively acappella stuff, mostly because I'm too lazy to write out an organ part!

    I would point you to Mr. Michael Olbash, though, as I successfully used a wonderful, accessible setting of his last Easter Vigil: "Worthy is the Lamb." SAB choir, organ, brass...not hard and very beautiful!

    Olbash, I'm calling you out! Time to share it with the masses (pun intended)!
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Heath, I actually shuddered as hit the last edit, "Rats, I left Olbash out of the litany, oh and my local friend Royce Nickel too!" I have Michael's setting of the Mass 2010 in my "to do" pile to top it all off.
    For all those I didn't mention, my sincerest regrets. As I said, "old and infirm."
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,694
    I've been working diligently on a 17-part polyphonic rendition of Chopsticks... but I'm thinking that's not really what you're looking for... Perhaps for the reception/tavern afterward.
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    First of all, a tavern in SLC? Really, MJM?
    Secondly, the Bulgarian Women already did their version, dude, in 87, even before Part, they being so deep into major 2nd clustering an' all.
    3rdly- I've GOOGLED, ASK.COM'd, Yahoo'd, and WIKI'd myself into a stupor (don't go there!) and haven't found any scriptural allusions to "Chopsticks" period, much less Paschal Chopsticks.
    Are you yanking my crank, MJM?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    http://musicasacra.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1407&page=1#Item_26

    warning:

    demanding
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,048
    The only thing I have in the catalog that is even remotely suitable is my setting of the Tenebrae responsories...and I assure you, if you're too lazy/busy to write something, you're too busy to work them up. They're at cpdl under the names of their constituent movements (In monte Oliveti, etc.)
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Has everyone lost their sense of humor? Of course I'll check them out F and JQ...
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    JQ

    Do you have any recordings of your choral works? I am very interested to hear them.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,048
    I have a bunch of things up here (which is a page off of www.clevelandcomposers.org) And I see I need to do some housekeeping, and there are other things I could put up.
  • Albert Ahlstrom
    Posts: 5
    d
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 756
    Dear Charles, it's very good of you to name me in such company. I do have some ideas, but my usual slow gestation rate, the proximity of Easter and the need to turn around a number of day-job documents makes 2013 more likely than 2012. Best wishes.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    I also have a large scale "Requiem", but it is a more a free-form concert piece with other movements that you would not find in an official R Mass.

    I will post the website and then let you preview the work. (It was going to be my Carnegie Hall Debut with the NY Phil with Rosenbaum conducting, but we never put it together.) Would you be interested?
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Yikes, Francis, I been to Carnegie Hall with another "Requiem (Gabriel's), and you are considering a less than?
    What is the scale of your setting, chorally, soloistically, orchestral?
    We are about 20-24 strong, good solid readers and singers, great organist and I have orchestral resources. But I wasn't
    really thinking about "monumental." You let me know whether you think your setting is scale-wise doable.
    Thanks,
    C
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    You seem to be asking more for Lenten than Eastertide works, but If you have any interest in the latter and have a good organ and brass available, there is a superb Easter anthem by Healy Willan called 'O Sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things' for SATB, Baritone solo, organ and brass quartet - the middle section is baritone solo on Easter themes from Paul, and it closes with 5 or 6 pages of glorious, almost Handelian fugal alleluyas. It is the ultimate offertory anthem for Easter Day. I have done this piece many times and very highly recommend it!

    Also, if you like, I could send you my own SATB setting of the propers for Easter Day in a sort of Venetian polychoral style. The Resp Ps is also for SATB in a stately fauxbourden style with a congregational Respond. The people's Alleluya is a modified version of the proper Gregorian one with the Verse being a short imitative choir setting. The offertory is the one which is sort of an apology to Monteverdi and is somewhat grand. The Introit is a really nice imitative piece. None of these propers are more than moderately difficult... they are largely easy. Give me your address if you would like for me to send you a copy, which you could reproduce ad libitum giving appropriate credits.
    Thanked by 1compozor
  • compozor
    Posts: 14
    Charles - by "big" do you mean lengthy (20'+), or just for large forces?

    I have a setting of one (count 'em one) of the last Seven Words from the Cross -- "Eli, Eli" for choir and organ, but it's only about 6'. It is pretty dramatic, though : )

    Frank LR

    BTW, I just discovered this forum tonight -- talk about being out of the loop!
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    That would be great, mon professor! I'm also planning to do a Mass setting by a local legend choral teacher whom I knew before he passed a number of years ago. Let's talk offline.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Charles

    forgot about this thread. Will try post movements soon.
  • CGM
    Posts: 683
    One suggestion would be to include several of the fantastic Tenebrae Responsories, by Carlo Gesualdo. Most, though not all, of them are freely available in modern scorings, here (scroll down to "Tenebrae"):

    http://www.benesonarium.com/free-scores-by-liturgical-use/

  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Charles... How about my latest work, just about complete now, Et Lux In Tenebris?
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Yes, Francis, it's not too late. We're pretty solid on Stainer "Crucifixion," and working on Frank LaRocca's "Eli, Eli..", but I'd love to audition your piece ASAP.
    cculbreth (at) tccov (dot) org
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    CGM,
    I secretly love that murderous fiend's music, but my choir'd lynch me f'sure. And like many, their predisposed to do me bodily harm on general principle daily anyway!
  • CGM
    Posts: 683
    I know of two excellent settings of the Good Friday Reproaches, both in English.

    1a. The English composer John Sanders wrote a setting in eight voices in the mid-90's which was recorded by the Choir of St. Paul's Cathedral a few years later. Spectacularly splendid dissonances, just a remarkable setting of the text. It made people cry every year for the eleven years we did it at my church in NYC. ("Are you going to sing that scary piece again?" people started to ask me as Holy Week approached.)
    http://www.choraline.com/store/choralvocal-scores/sanders-the-reproaches.-rscm-vs2800.0

    1b. Sanders' piece also exists in a six-voice reduced scoring in this volume:
    http://www.amazon.com/Wednesday-Easter-Choirs-Lionel-Dakers/dp/0193531119

    2. Last year when our forces were fewer, I wrote a four-voice setting of the Reproaches for Holy Week. It's pretty challenging, but I think quite effective. Scroll down to "The Reproaches":
    http://www.benesonarium.com/catalog/
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