Commissioned by the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Ann Arbor, directed by Ben Cohen, Poor Richard's Almanac was recorded at the premiere, in May of 2007. Thanks to VOE for their excellent performance. The text is aphorisms of Ben Franklin, as you might guess, adapted and otherwise scrambled a bit by yours truly.
Selected in open competition by the San Francisco Choral Artists, directed
by Magen Solomon, The Evidence was recorded at the premiere, in March of 2006.
Needless to say, I was honored to be selected by this professional group.
The poem is by the 17th-century mystic Thomas Traherne, whose poetry lay forgotten
until around 1900, when it was accidently rediscovered. His great theme is life
as a joyful gift from God.
This is three minutes of pure silliness, to a poem by Arthur Guiterman. It is written for 4-part choir (no divisi) and piano, and is harmonically lively, including a canon at the major third. It still awaits its first live performance.
I found the text for this piece at an excellent website called the Cyber Hymnal. I was looking for nautical themes and searching specifically for the word pilot. Thanks to my upbringing in a Plymouth Brethren church, my memories include vivid metaphors of life as a stormy sea. Christ the Pilot appears in many places in popular pious expression, including the hymn Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me, Tennesson's poem Crossing the Bar (yes, it's a cliché, but it never fails to move me) and this candy-coated painting by Sallman along with its occasional knockoff.
The first performance was in September, 2002 during a Sunday morning
worship service at St. Luke Lutheran Church. We were not able to get a
recording that day, so I assembled a group of friends in March,
2003 for a single session to rehearse and record the piece.
Thanks to the following folks for their hard work:
WMA 330k
I composed this piece in fits and starts with no idea how or when it would be performed. I joined the Ann Arbor Cantata Singers and roped a bunch of them into helping me record this piece. Among them was the director at the time, Bill Boggs. After it was done he kindly offered to program it. We sang the premier in December, 1998, and you can download the recording of that performance.
My oldest child, Der Drübermensch, decided to make things awkward for me by being born that same weekend. That kept me racing between concert and hospital.
MP3 1452k
This short duet was performed on Reformation Sunday, which commemorates the 95 theses Martin Luther nailed to the Wittenberg Door. Psalm 46 is the basis for Luther's hymn "A Mighty Fortress is our God." The recording I made in my home studio, with my voice on both parts. Please try to ignore my squawking out the tenor's top notes.