Choral Music

Settings of eight Poems of Mary Oliver that are highly contrasting in texture and mood, trace a cycle in the natural world from dawn of one day to dawn of the next. This piece was co-commissioned by the Chatham Chorale and the New Amsterdam Singers.

Voicing: SATB

Accompaniment: String quartet and piano

A setting of six poems of David McCord. Commissioned by the MeistUrsingers chorus of the Tavern Club, Boston, in honor of Elliot Forbes.

Voicing: TTBB (also available in SSAA and SATB with piano accompaniment)

Accompaniment: piano

Audio Excerpts:

Earth Song
The Cow Has A Cud
The Starfish

The second section of The Light Here Kindled. The parent work was commissioned for the 350th anniversary of Harvard University. The moving text is about how faith can spread "as one small candle can light a thousand."

Voicing: SATB

Accompaniment: Brass quintet, timpani and organ, or organ alone

A setting of three of the Holy Sonnets of John Donne.

Voicing: SSATBB a cappella

Accompaniment: None

A setting of the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei for both Rites I and II, and the Rite II Fraction Anthem. Intended for unison singing by both choir and congregation, with optional simple descants for the choir. Composed for St. John's Church, Northampton, MA.

Voicing: unison, with optional descants for the choir

Accompaniment: organ

A Southern Folk-Hymn. Commissioned by the Harvard University Choir.

Voicing: SATB or TBB a cappella

Accompaniment: None

Voicing: SATB a cappella

Accompaniment: None

A setting of the complete five-part Latin Mass. First performed in Washington National Cathedral in 1973 in memory of ZeBarney Thorne Phillips, former Dean of the Cathedral.

Voicing: Solo Soprano, Tenor and Bass, SATB chorus

Accompaniment: Flute (doubling piccolo), oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, tenor trombone, bass trombone, percussion (2 players), harp, strings

NOTE: Can be ordered with a piano-vocal score, with a full orchestral score, with orchestral parts only, or with a two-piano accompaniment.

Commissioned in memory of Samuel H. Miller by the Harvard University Choir for its annual carol service.

Voicing: Soprano solo, SATB chorus

Accompaniment: Organ

A work for the more advanced college- or university-level chorus. The texts are drawn from three woman poets of vastly different times and cultures, the Greek poet Sappho, the American imagist poet Adelaid Crapsey, and the Chinese poet Tzu Yeh. The second piece is a cappella.

Voicing: Soprano and Alto solo, SSAA chorus

Accompaniment: Solo cello, percussion and piano

Movements:

1. Alone
2. Triad
3. I Am the North Pole

NOTE: Parts available on rental. Study score for sale.

The text is drawn from Psalms 148 and 150.

Voicing: Two-part chorus (men's, women's or mixed)

Accompaniment: Tape

A celebration of some of cummings' most vivid nature poetry. Commissioned by the Smith College Glee Club, Theodore Morrison, director.

Voicing: Soli and SSA chorus

Accompaniment: 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, percussion (one player), harp, strings. Or piano.

Movements:

1. O sweet spontaneous earth
   
2. in Just-spring
   
3. as is the sea marvelous
   
4. All in green went my love riding
   
5. when god lets my body be
   
6. i thank You God

NOTE: The individual movements are also available as separate octavos (ECS 5701-5706).

Voicing: SSA

Accompaniment: Piano

A dramatic cantata in which the narrator sets forth, in English, events from the life of St. Francis, and the chorus sings, in Italian, the sections of his famous poem. Commissioned for the 100th anniversary of Groton School.

Voicing: Narrator, SATB chorus

Accompaniment: Synthesized accompaniment (CD) or keyboard

Movements:

1. Processional
2. Reading No. 1
3. Chorus, "Altissimu omnipotente bon signore"
4. Reading No. 2
5. Chorus, "Laudatu sie, mi signore"
6. Reading No. 3
7. Chorus, "Laudato si', mi signore, per quelli che perdonano"
8. Reading No. 4
9. Chorus, "Laudato si', mi signore, per sora nostra morte corporale"
10. Reading No. 5
11. Hymn, "Laudate et benedicite mi signore"
12. Recessional

From The Canticle of the Sun, movement 5.

Voicing: SATB

Accompaniment: Synthesized accompaniment (CD) or keyboard

Commissioned for the 350th anniversay of Harvard University. Following an opening solo baritone setting of Governor Bradford's thanksgiving text, the chorus develops a motet out of a moving passage that starts "out of small beginnings."

Voicing: Solo Baritone and SATB chorus

Accompaniment: Brass quintet, timpani and organ

Based on The Outermost House by Henry Beston, which recounts the experience of living for a year in a two-room cottage on the beach in Eastham, Cape Cod. With one exception, the odd-number movements are for the narrator, while the even numbers are usually for the chorus with and without the soprano.

Commissioned by the Chatham Chorale, Margaret Bossi, director, in honor of its founder, Marjorie Bennett Morley.

Voicing: Narrator, Soprano solo, SATB chorus

Accompaniment: flute (doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd doubling english horn), 2 horns, piano, percussion (one player), 2 cellos, contrabass

Movements:

1. East of America
2. My Western Windows
3. A New Sound on the Beach
4. The Sea Has Many Voices
5. Now Come the Sea Fowl
6. Glorious White Birds
7. A Year Indoors
8. That Multiplicity of Insect Tracks
9. The Wreck of the Montclair
10. Night on the Great Beach
11. It Was Still Night
12. My Year Upon the Beach
13. Hold Out Your Hands Over the Earth

NOTE: Vocal score for sale. Conductor's score and parts available on rental.

The final movement of The Outermost House.

Voicing: SATB, SSAA, or TTBB

Accompaniment: Piano

Composed for the 100th anniversary of St. John's Church, Northampton, MA.

Voicing: SATB

Accompaniment: Brass quintet, timpani and organ

Commissioned by the Smith College Glee Club, Lucinda Thayer, director.

Voicing: SSA

Accompaniment: Piano

Movements:

1. If You Intend to Sing
2. Few Ladies Adopt the Violin
3. A Fondness for Music

Commissioned by the New Amsterdam Singers. A cantata based on archives of interviews with immigrants who passed through Ellis Island in the early years of the 20th century.

Voicing: Speaker and SATB chorus

Accompaniment: Flute (doubling alto flute), clarinet in Bb (doubling clarinet in A, bass clarinet, alto sax), violin, viola, cello, bass, piano, percussion

Movements:

1. What is your number?
2. America, I wish I was going
3. The fastest and securist transportation
4. Steerage
5. The Lady with her hand up
6. Island of hope; island of tears
7. Names

Commissioned by Five Colleges, Inc. for the 2000 Five College Choral Festival.

Voicing: SA, SA, SATB*

Accompaniment: Six trumpets, two trombones

Movements:

1. Behold, thou art fair
2. Rise up, my love
3. Set me as a seal

NOTE: Also available as SATB and keyboard or SSAA and keyboard

*audio excerpt