I’ve put together a few clips of my most recent works featuring choir and orchestra along with a few comments to introduce each. If you like what you hear, there is more to be found on my “compositions” page including simpler church anthems, concert pieces and arrangements. All choral scores include a keyboard reduction of the orchestra parts.
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I set Crossing the Bar for the memorial service of a dear friend and patron of the arts and it will always have a special place in my heart. The phrase “moaning of the bar” refers to the noise (moaning) made by the tide as it crosses over a sand bar and returns to the sea. And so, the phrase “And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea.” asks that there be no weeping or sadness when he takes his final journey home.
My thanks to Carol Rethmel and Tom Forgas for putting together this beautiful video in which you’ll hear Crossing the Bar in its entirety.
Available editions: Chamber orchestra: strings / harp / opt flute / opt horns 1 & 2 -OR- Keyboard
Contraries: The Human Condition (Duration: 22 minutes)
Excerpt 1
The first 3 movements are from the Innocence section and the last 3 are from the Experience section. The 2-minute audio clip includes excerpts from movements 1, 2, 4, and 6. The setting is for mixed chorus, solo soprano and orchestra.
Available editions: Orchestra: 2*222 / 4331 / timp+1 / perc 1 / strings / (timp+2 if using opt glk)
*Second flute doubles on piccolo
A lyrical setting of the Prayer of St. Richard of Chichester -- one that I think works equally well for church or the concert hall. The setting is for mixed chorus with either keyboard (with oboe solo) or chamber orchestra.
Available editions: Chamber orchestra: strings / harp / oboe Keyboard: oboe solo
Psalm 150 (Duration: 6½ minutes)
Excerpt 3
Commissioned and premiered by the Berkshire Choral Festival. I used the Elizabethan-age language as found in the Kings James Bible for my setting because I love its poetic beauty. As you’d expect, you’ll find plenty of trumpets and timpani in the accompaniment but you’ll also encounter lighter and varying textures along the way with changing meters for contrast. The setting is for mixed chorus and orchestra.
Available editions: Orchestra: 2*222 / 2230 / timp+2 / harp / strings /
organ / trumpet / timpani
*Second flute doubles on piccolo
Lift Up Your Heads
(Duration: 2½ minutes)
Excerpt 4
A setting of Psalm 24: 7-10 from The Book of Common Prayer. One of three pieces I wrote as a kind of “cathedral music set.” The middle piece of the set is "O Holy Jesus" and the final piece (which does not yet appear on this site, but is available) is a setting of "O Be Joyful" (Psalm 100). The setting is for mixed chorus and orchestra (or chamber orchestra), or keyboard.
Available editions: (applies to Lift Up Your Heads and O Be Joyful) Orchestra: 2*222 / 2230 / timp+2 / harp / strings *Second flute doubles on piccolo Chamber orchestra: strings / harp / oboe / flute / trumpet / timpani Keyboard: optional trumpet
Holocaust Cantata: Songs from the Camps for SATB choir, solos and narration
Based on songs found
in the archives of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum that were written by the inmates of Nazi concentration camps,
this cantata takes you on an emotional journey through one of the
bleakest episodes in human history.
