While By Our Sleeping Flock We Lay

While By Our Sleeping Flocks We Lay

While All Things Lay in Quiet Stillness : Wisdom 18:1,14, 19:18

She Walks in Beauty : From Love Shall Live Forever

Part of the collection Love Shall Live Forever. "She Walks in Beauty" begins with a piano introduction allowing time to enter the poetic world of Lord Byron. A simple melody is accompanied by steady, walking rhythms. Although the original poem speaks only of the woman (beloved)- reverently, objectively- this new interpretation inserts a verse to include the man (lover), thus creating a love song for a couple. He walks in courage...they walk in beauty, O love! The piece concludes with a quote from the Song of Solomon (Set Me As A Seal). Duration: 3:00

Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal

While having a folk-like feel that suits this familiar text, the musical material is entirely original. This setting features a more pastoral, contemplative tone than more lively settings with which you might be familiar. SATB a cappella in seven parts (the altos do not divide).

Erinnerung : Remembrance

An evocation of the sound world of Schubert's Sonatas, especially channeling Schubert’s D959. The references to Schubert are sometimes direct, but often altered in slight ways to evoke the dreamy sense of time that occurs while sleeping. It was commissioned by David Deveau specifically for a recording of this work with Steinway Records. Duration: 5:15

Light Upon the Water

Light Upon the Water was composed as part of a 2013 Composer Fellowship from The McKnight Foundation, a program administered by the American Composers Forum. While Michael Dennis Browne’s text is appropriate for a wedding, it is also too lovely to restrict it to only that purpose. The music is tender and lyrical, and the rhapsodic nature of the movendo section near the end of the piece is not to be missed! Duration: 2:00

Three Impudent Arias

The texts for these songs are adapted from Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), one of America’s most fearless and biting satirists. It is safe to say that these songs are probably not for every performer. They require a good dose of theatrical dash and a bit of raw nerve, not exactly your formal recital staples. While they do have a suggestively masculine tone, a female singer with the right irreverence and attitude could certainly bring them off. (The composer suggests that these three songs be performed as a set as opposed to individually. They were constructed to achieve a certain balance as a set.)

Mary Chesnut: A Civil War Diary

Mary Chesnut (1823 1886) was the wife of confederate Colonel James Chesnut. They owned a plantation near Camden, South Carolina, during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. They also owned many slaves, both field hands and household servants. They moved in privileged social circles, dining with politicians, judges, and ranking military leaders. Mary was a well-read, educated, and articulate southern woman. The words, emotions, and events that follow were diligently entered into her diary, creating an impressive chronicle of the times. No attempt was made to alter her views. Nor was any attempt made by the composer to make a political point or take a position on any issue.This story is Mary Chesnut’s, and it is from her singular point of view from which the drama springs. Some of her opinions and attitudes were very much of-the-day, and may offend current sensibilities. While slavery plays a critical role in the events contained herein, I have decided not to lean too heavily on it (that is another piece), focusing more on how the war impacted Mary’s personal life. A Diary from Dixie was originally published in 1905, edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary. While there are other collections of Mary Chesnut’s writing available, this libretto was derived principally from A Diary from Dixie. -Steven Mark Kohn, 2012

The Wind in the Willows

While studying at the American Academy in Rome from 1922 to 1925 on the first Damrosch Fellowship, Randall Thompson, fascinated with Kenneth Grahame’s delightful 1908 children’s story The Wind in the Willows, wrote two works based on chapters from it. One is a three-movement string quartet written under the influence of composers including Gian Francesco Malipiero and Alfredo Casella and the most recent European music he heard in Rome and at International Festivals he attended. Along with his five choral Odes of Horace, written at approximately the same time, this work provides us a significant glimpse of Thompson as a composer of chamber music during his formative creative years. Includes score and parts. Duration: 14:00

Ancient Airs and Dances : Suite No. 1

A transcription of the first suite to one of Respighi’s most famous and much-beloved works. The orchestral suite itself is a transcription of sixteenth-century lute works, of which Respighi also transcribed for piano 2- and 4-hands. The transcriber of this edition used the orchestral setting in order to match the orchestral instruments to their corresponding organ stops with as much accuracy as possible. The transciption is idiomatic and a delight to play. The first three movements are accessible while the fourth will require more practice time. The movements could be performed alone or with one another and would give an audience a unique and pleasant concert experience.Duration: 15:00

Two Christmas Preludes

These attractive chorale preludes are suitable for performance during the Christmas and Epiphany seasons. The first is based on 'All This Night My Heart Rejoices' (Frölich soll mein Herze springen / EBeling), while the second uses 'Brich an, O schönes Morgenlicht' ('Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light'(Ermuntre dich). Rapt, lyrical, and meditative, these pieces are suited to both church and recital. The composer has made suggestions for registration. Rapt, lyrical, and meditative, these pieces are suited to both church and recital. The composer has made suggestions for registration. Total duration: 7:25   1. ChoralePrelude on Frölich soll mein Herze springen Duration: 3:28 2. Chorale Prelude on Brich an, O schönes Morgenlicht Duration: 3:57  

All Await

All Await was commissioned by Trinity Presbyterian Church, Berwyn, Pennsylvania, in celebration of the church’s 150th anniversary. It received its premiere performance at Trinity Church in December, 2012 by the Chancel Choir and Director Paul Vanderslice. Nancy Gifford was asked to compose a celebratory piece for this occasion based on an Advent theme. The text was inspired by a fourth-century hymn of St. Ambrose of Milan, Veni, Redemptor gentium. In this context, All Await echoes elements of traditional western sacred music while using today’s language. The piece begins plaintively in the E natural minor mode and suddenly breaks into joyful polyphony. In the second section (theGloria Patri adapted into English), we move into E Major and the music becomes more rhythmic and robust. The climax of the piece describes the angel Gabriel’s message to Mary, when “the Word of God descends.” Dramatically descending melodic lines appear, sung in turn by each voice part and then played by the organ. Repetition and reinvention of these musical ideas follow, with marked contrasts in texture, dynamics, articulation, and expression. Short organ interludes occur throughout the piece, introducing new sections of choral music. This work ends with a short coda, closing with the words “All await,” sung by the chorus three times and answered by the organ.

Reverie Hommage a Francis Poulenc

Poignant, evocative, wistful, playful, charming. These are just a few of the many adjectives that recount Francis Poulenc's musical craft, and perhaps, even his own personal disposition. When the musical elite begin any discussion (or argument) regarding the art of Francis Poulenc, one quote patented by noted music critic Claude Rostand seems to always bubble towards the surface: "In Poulenc, there is something of the monk and something of the rascal." How often we see that dichotomous but unifying strand of inspiration throughout his entire oeuvre! With the contrasting and complimentary ingredients of both piety and playfulness thoughtfully put in place, it is the intent ofRêverie to conjure the heart of Poulenc's musical form. Rêverie is a work that combines harmonic inventiveness, melodic poignancy and rhythms sprinkled with mischievous pulses. While the work does pay homage to the master with reverence, it simultaneously summons a fresh, new perspective of these old, familiar forms-these "ships" of our pasts. With that said, perhaps it is best to let Stravinsky take the helm: "[But] the true work of an artist is to improve upon old ships. He can only recount in his own way what has already been told." -Luke MayernikIncludes score and Alto Saxophone part. Duration: 6:30