This is a completely new choral-anthem setting of the popular gospel hymn text. The colorful melodies and harmonies are a world apart from the incessant lilting cheerfulness of the original tune to better depict the range and depth of emotions expressed in the text’s story of redemption. The music leads listeners on a emotional journey from the despair of sin’s eternal ruin to the joy of Christ’s saving grace. The chorus concludes with a passionate testimony and witness for Christ.
The music is written for SATB chorus with piano accompaniment and is suitable for most amateur church ensembles as well as more advanced groups. The opening stanza may be sung as a bass/tenor duet or with full men’s sections.
Jesus Loves the Little Children is a fresh interpretation of the beloved children’s song set as a choral anthem. New text, based on several gospel stories of Christ’s interaction with children, complements and extends C.H. Woolston’s poetry to charge the church with caring for these little ones. Amid heightened emphases on our differences in recent days, Woolston’s text came to mind as a pithy and poignant means to remind ourselves to look at each other through Christ’s eyes. And, if we do so, we will regard, not one another’s immutable external characteristics but, the imago Dei (image of God) common in us all. This music is meant to bring us toward this perspective through contemplation on how precious all the little ones, red and yellow, black and white, are in His eyes.
David’s Kyrie is a setting of selected verses from Psalm 51. It is a challenging piece suited for advanced choirs in an academic or concert setting or for adventurous ensembles in sacred services. It mixes ancient and modern forms and sonorities to depict the contrition, repentance, absolution, and salvation portrayed in the psalm, juxtaposing medieval chant with Whitacre-esque clusters and dissonances. In structure, David’s Kyrie roughly follows the Kyrie of the Christian mass and even borrows a melodic line from a medieval Kyrie.
The heading for Psalm 51 states that it is “For the director of music ” underscoring the fact that all 150 psalms in the Bible were meant to be sung, as they have been for most of the last 3,000 years. It is my hope that David’s Kyrie will be an encouragement to continue that great heritage.
Make His Praise a Glorious Thing is a new setting of the English language’s great doxology from the pen of Thomas Ken. It builds on his words with references to the Psalms’ multitude of exhortations to exuberantly praise God in manifold ways with glorious praise. The character of the piece reflects this with a joyous and spirited aesthetic above a driving tempo. The text also juxtaposes our contemporary praises within the historic stream of doxologies from saints past and future as a precursor to the eternal, magnificent, and heavenly doxologies portrayed in Revelation 5 and 7. The melody correspondingly has roots in the traditional Old 100th Psalm tune as well, although it will take a keen ear to catch it.
Although set for SATB choir, it is hoped that this accessible melody will find a place in your congregational singing also. Make His Praise a Glorious Thing is a wonderful call to worship, responsorial, or sacred concert opening or closing.
For SATB Chorus, Clarinet, Timpani, Percussion, Piano, Cello
There are 150 psalms in the Bible, each one originally meant to be sung; and so they were for most of the last 3,000 years, beginning at the Jerusalem Temple. They were adopted as the primary song text of the early church as evidenced by Col. 3:16 and maintained in the Western church throughout medieval times. Psalms were the featured texts of most of the Reformers and were the sole mode of sacred singing among the first American settlers. Of late, hymns and choruses and popular songs with human texts have almost entirely replaced the singing of God’s word in many churches. This scarcity of Psalms in the Church’s song is a great loss which frequently motivates me to promote their increase. Thus, THIRTEEN , one member of my first suite of new Psalm settings, is offered as a to help bring the Psalms back into modern worship.
The thirteenth Psalm holds a complaint, a petition, and a confession of faith and the music of THIRTEEN portrays each with text painting appropriate to the psalmist’s words. A staggering timpani ostinato buffets away beneath the choir’s tripartite “how long” complaint, followed by a dissonant recitative petition which transitions through shimmering tonal clusters into a joyful, major-key, confession of faith blended with a NT perspective from Eph. 3:20-21.
THIRTEEN is challenging music, both in music and message, but for the adventurous music department it provides the opportunity to plumb the depths of scripture with artistry worthy of the rich heritage of Psalmody to use music to express the full message of God’s revelation. THIRTEEN is fitting to program liturgically as a musical exposition of the Psalm or in a sacred or secular concert setting. The very light orchestration complements the vocal performance with rich instrumental color without overwhelming the voices.
