NOTE: An MP3 file, using Kontakt sounds, is available online at this site for listening.

"Canticle of Praise," for large chorus, small chorus, vocal octet, lyric baritone solo, antiphonal coloratura sporanos, organ, and harp, is a deeply and intensely personal work. "Canticle of Praise" is my largest effort to date at creating sacred music that adheres to traditional models (in this case, the early-modern English anthem) rather than making extensive use of contemporary popular idioms. However, ... (more)

NOTE: An MP3 file, using Kontakt sounds, is available online at this site for listening.

"Canticle of Praise," for large chorus, small chorus, vocal octet, lyric baritone solo, antiphonal coloratura sporanos, organ, and harp, is a deeply and intensely personal work. "Canticle of Praise" is my largest effort to date at creating sacred music that adheres to traditional models (in this case, the early-modern English anthem) rather than making extensive use of contemporary popular idioms. However, the text, which is adapted from the Scriptures, is both my personal creed and a message for our age. Further, there are brief occurrences of more distinctively secular sounds within the music, especially the major triad with the added sixth (e.g., C-E-G-A), a harmonic sonority both dear to my heart and a familiar "jazz lick." Yet none of this should cause one to overlook the expressions of my love of their music and the enormous debt that I owe to Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (the bravura organ exposition of what is, in essence, a concerto grosso first-movement scheme in miniature), Sir Edward Elgar ("And hence now we offer unto him our loftiest paean ..."), Ralph Vaughan Williams ("He lays a calming hand upon the soul that mourns or fears ... " and the Gloria Patri, which also possesses a touch of Herbert Howells), and Frederick Delius (the aforementioned major triad with the added sixth). A final influence was that of Sir Edward Bairstow, who did so much in his works ("Blessed City, Heavenly Salem," &c) to establish the instruments as equal to, and at times greater than, the voices in importance in the anthem of England ca. 1880 - World War I, which is my favorite historical combination of place and time.

One might also note that the contrasting lyric theme, beginning with the baritone solo, is in fact a transformation of the bravura opening. Actually, the opposite took place as far as the creation of the music is concerned. The lyric manifestation came first, as a textless musical reflection on an event in my life that had no religious connections whatsoever. Later, as I was fashioning an anthem (after beginning, then abandoning, a setting of the Magnificat), I started with the lyric material, then worked backwards to fashion the dramatic opening and bold initial choral statement. Subsequently, a three-note figure common to each manifestation became the main basis of the brief instrumental development section.

"Canticle" is more of a sacred concert piece than functional church music, 1) because of its level of difficulty (vocal ranges, marked angularity of melodic lines, the difficulty of the harp part and baritone solo, and demands for rather high levels of musical literacy throughout the sections of the large and small vocal ensembles); 2) due to its length; and 3) because of its only loose connections to established liturgy. Thus it is, after a fashion, analogous to the Gounod St. Cecilia Mass and other works that cannot be used in strictly liturgical situations because of departures from established practices.

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