Choral Works

Wondrous Love; fantasia on three hymns

SATB choir and keyboard (organ or piano); Sacred; Intermediate difficulty

     This is a weaving together of three well-known hymns (which ones I won't give away except for the obvious!).

Ute Prayer

SATB choir acapella (piano reduction for rehearsal); Secular; Moderately difficult

     This text comes from the Ute people. It is a litany of sorts as the Earth and nature teach us how to live our lives in harmony.

Elegy

SATB choir acapella (piano reduction for rehearsal); Secular; Moderately difficult

     Set to a poem by my wife, the music is evocative of the underwater world that the text inhabits.

Holy Ground

SATB choir, trumpet, and organ; Sacred; Moderately difficult

     The rocking motion in the organ sometimes complements and sometimes counterbalances the declamatory style of the choir and trumpet.

The Song of Joan of Arc

SATB choir acapella (piano reduction for rehearsal); Sacred; Moderately difficult

     Taken from Christine de Pizan's 1429 text, this work is in both French and English and echoes a French medieval style.

The Trees

SATB choir, oboe, and piano; Secular; Intermediate difficulty

     Set to a poem by Philip Larkin, this work is a stark yet hopeful meditation on the themes of mortality and rebirth. Commissioned in 2013.

Rose Fantasia

SATB choir, cello, and piano; Sacred; Intermediate difficulty

     Commissioned by a man in honor of his late mother, this is a Christmas work blending "Lo, How a Rose", "Gesu Bambino", and a small dash of "My Wild Irish Rose" in the cello part.

Huron Carol

SATB choir (w/ minor divisi), Native American flute or flute, and hand drum; Sacred; Moderately easy

     An arrangement of the well-known Christmas carol, in the original Huron (Wyandot) language.

Dies irae

SATB choir acapella; Sacred; Intermediate difficulty

     A harmonization of the plainchant.

Dum pater familias

SATB choir acapella; Sacred; Intermediate difficulty

     A harmonization of the plainchant.

Mindscape

SATB choir acapella; Secular; Intermediate difficulty

     This was written for a friend's high school choir on the occasion of her leaving to go to graduate school. The text is about lasting friendship set amid an ocean shoreline.

Kyrie

SATB choir acapella; Sacred; Moderately difficult

     A setting in the Russian Orthodox style of long, flowing, and independent lines.

A Prophecy of the Last Days

SATB choir and organ; Sacred; Moderately difficult

     A dramatic setting of a dramatic text with sections of somnolence contrasting with blood and fire.

What the Spirit Sayeth

SATB choir and organ; Sacred; Intermediate difficulty

     Written for my first church choir, this is a tonal work that includes a miniature fugue in the middle. Fugues are fun!

Arise good shepherd

SATB choir and organ; Sacred; Intermediate difficulty

     This was written specifically to be easy on the organist and uplifting and celebratory for Easter. Not a subtle work, it is extremely tonal with few dissonances (usually just in passing). In the immortal words of a college music theory professor, "...crass yet effective".