In 2012, Dr. William Eash and the Bethel College Concert Choir (North Newton, KS) commissioned Filled With His Voice for mixed choir, saxophone, and piano. They have since performed the piece several times and will be including the work on their program tomorrow at the Kansas Music Educators Association Conference. Best wishes to Dr. Eash and the choir for a great experience at KMEA! When: February 21, 2013 - 2:35 PM Where: Century II MJT Little Theater, Wichita, KS More details: See a full schedule of KMEA here
Advent Hymn Arrangements
This past Sunday, the church choir in which Ashley and I sing took on Vivaldi's Gloria under the direction of Music Director Dr. James Douthit and Organist Dr. Bruce Frank. It was wonderful! A few weeks ago, James asked if I would arrange the hymns that would be included as part of the service along with the Vivaldi. We were very fortunate to have a chamber orchestra (strings, oboe, trumpet, organ) to accompany the Vivaldi, and without special arrangements, the instrumentalists would not have music to play during the hymns.
It was so much fun to work with these three wonderful hymns: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus, and Jesus Comes With Clouds Descending.
I had a blast, and the sound of organ, choir, strings, trumpet, oboe and congregational singing was magnificent! If you are interested in these arrangements (there are still two Sundays left in Advent!), I have included links to the scores below. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing the scores and parts. I would be happy to customize these for slightly different instrumentations, if needed. Recordings will be forthcoming.
PDF Scores
Thanksgiving
As Thanksgiving approaches, I'm happy to report that my new wind ensemble consortium piece for winds and film is nearly complete! The music is essentially done, there is just a bit of editing and orchestration left to do. I'm very excited about the piece and looking forward to getting the music and film out to consortium members in January. The past few days I have been working on a new project - arranging a few Advent hymns! I love Advent! The church choir I am singing in will be singing Vivaldi's Gloria on December 9th, with strings and organ. The Director asked if I would arrange the 3 hymns for the service for strings, organ, oboe, and trumpet (and congregational singing of course). I'm having a great time with this - and I have the opportunity to work with some wonderful hymns (and wonderful musicians!).
I have been working on Jesus Comes with Clouds Descending which is quickly becoming one of my favorite hymns. It is a soaring, powerful melody, and it doesn't hurt that the harmony is written by Ralph Vaughan Williams. I've had the tune stuck in my head for about a week, and I think I could listen to this all day. Among many, many other things, I'm thankful for this powerful and transformational music we have.
"Filled With His Voice" Premieres Tomorrow at Bethel College!
My newest work for choir, Filled with His Voice, premieres tomorrow at Bethel College in Newton, Kansas! The work, scored for SATB choir, alto saxophone, and piano was commissioned by Dr. William Eash and the Bethel College Choir. You can read the beautiful text I worked with here. Thank you to Dr. Eash for helping to bring this work to life, and best wishes to him and the choir for a great performance tomorrow!
New Commission - Choir, Saxophone & Piano
I'm excited to announce a new commission which has just been finalized and that I am writing this summer. Dr. William Eash and the Bethel College Choir are commissioning a new piece for choir, saxophone, and piano! I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Dr. Eash and the Bethel Choir, and also to include saxophone (near and dear to my heart!) in this piece. The text we decided on is below. I have been thinking about ideas for the piece for a few weeks and have a good idea of the general structure and to some extent the roles of the various forces (men, women, saxophone, piano). Yesterday I got to spend a bit of time working on the piece in one of my favorite spots - the basement of the Eastman annex building! Stay tuned for more details about this piece! O thou, in whose presence
O thou, in whose presence my soul takes delight, on whom in affliction I call, my comfort by day, and my song in the night, my hope, my salvation, my all;
Where dost thou, dear Shepherd, resort with thy sheep? to feed in the pastures of love? Say, why in the valley of death should I weep, or lone in the wilderness rove?
Oh, why should I wander an alien from thee, or cry in the desert for bread? Thy foes will rejoice when my sorrows they see, and smile at the tears I have shed.
He looks, and ten thou-sands of angels rejoice, and myriads wait for his word. He speaks, and eternity filled with his voice, reechoes the praise of the Lord.
"This Song of Mine" Recording Now Posted
In April, "This Song of Mine" for women's choir and piano was premiered by the Houghton College Women's Choir conducted by my friend David Horace Davies. David recently sent me the live recording from their premiere and it is wonderful (listen below)! His direction of the piece and the sensitivity of the singing is just beautiful. "This Song of Mine" is a simple lullaby, and I love the way this performance portrayed the piece. Bravo David and the Houghton College Women's Choir! [audio http://www.stevedanyew.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Danyew_this_song.mp3]
Houghton College Women's Choir David Horace Davies, Conductor Live Concert Recording - April 2012
Goodnight, Goodnight This Sunday - Greater Gardner Community Choir
This Sunday, May 20th, the Greater Gardner Community Choir will perform Goodnight, Goodnight under the direction of the wonderful Diane Cushing. I will be there and I'm really looking forward to the performance! Who: Greater Gardner Community Choir When: May 20, 2012 - 4:00pm Where: Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, Gardner, MA
"This Song of Mine" Premieres Tonight at Houghton College!
My new work for women's choir and piano, "This Song of Mine," will be premiered tonight at Houghton College in Houghton, NY. "This Song of Mine" will be published this fall by Santa Barbara Music, and tonight the work will be presented by the Houghton College Women's Choir under the direction of David Horace Davies. Houghton College Women’s Choir directed by David Horace Davies April 25th, 2012 – 8:00pm Recital Hall – Center for the Arts Houghton College
Arise and Sing - This Sunday!
This Sunday I will conduct "Arise and Sing" in two services at the Westminster First Congregational Church in Westminster, MA. Arise and Sing is a 30 second introit piece for SATB unaccompanied choir intended to herald the opening of an Easter service. It is in the key of C and we will be dovetailing it with the opening hymn in the service - Christ the Lord is Risen Today. We tried this last year, and it was pretty cool. The choir lands on a powerful C major chord at the end of Arise and Sing, and while the choir is holding the last chord (fff of course) the organ comes in like a bulldozer, starting the introduction to the hymn. It's powerful - trust me. (Or better yet, come hear it on Sunday!)
Below is the King's College Choir singing Jesus Christ is Risen Today (same hymn as Christ the Lord is Risen Today). We will be singing it out of our hymnal, but Ashley and I co-wrote a descant for the last verse! Should be quite a morning! Happy Easter to all!
Idea for a New Piece
Sometimes I just improvise at the piano to come up with ideas that might turn into something. Occasionally an idea sticks around, comes back to me several days later, and I'm not sure why (at the time). But often times, ideas like that are the seeds for a new work. This happened a few days ago - I came up with a simple little chord progression that sounded nice, but disregarded it and went back to work on something else. I didn't even write it down. Then on Wednesday I was sitting at the piano and I found myself fiddling with this chord progression again. Now the ideas have been in my head almost non-stop for the past few days. Even though it is in some ways distracting from a piece I'm trying to finish (Magnolia Star for wind ensemble), it's always exciting when this sort of inspiration happens, and I don't mind the distraction one bit. I think the ideas will work great for both an SATB choral piece and possibly a wind band transcription. The essence of the idea is an 8 bar harmonic progression in 3/4 time that would be repeated, each time adding a new layer of counterpoint, or a new voice, etc. It will definitely start as a choral work, and I'm thinking the text might just be "Alleluia." The idea reminds me in some ways of Mozart's Dona Nobis Pacem canon, which has a special place in my heart because it is sung community-sing style at the conclusion of the Eastman Holiday Sing each year in December. Here is the 2010 performance directed by the great Mark Scatterday (even though you can't see him in the video):