budafulmusic

I recently had the privilege to compose incidental music for an upcoming Graduate speech recital. Sounds really academic, huh? Well don’t take it too seriously. This program is not for the long of face. In short, the extremely talented Allisha Sperr will be performing a series of short, absolutely hysterical comedy routines. I cannot begin to describe how funny this recital is going to be. You just have to see it for yourself to believe it.

This program takes place in Stratton Hall on the campus of BJU this Saturday, December the 5th at 7 o’ clock pm. Here are some audio samples:

Pre-show2: waltz

Pre-show1

Break their hearts, All is ha!

This past weekend, I received my first acceptance letter for a choral work. Hinshaw, a music publisher, was delighted with my choral anthem It is not Death to Die and will feature it in an upcoming production season. I posted the recording from the recital before this but it can now be accessed here as well:

It Is Not Death

I’ll be posting about this again as details solidify.

It’s been a while. Here is an mp3 for your listening enjoyment. This was the closing piece for my recital and was, I think, the most endearing piece in the program. Several people came up to me after wards in tears because of the powerful text and the effective musical setting.

While it may be easy to say that this was the most accessible piece, what made it that way? Was it because it had more “diatonic triads” than that of the rest of the program? or perhaps it was what came before it that made it so effective. Recently, I attended a recital which featured several modern pieces in the program. At first, the sounds were atmospheric and gradually they became more tense and more dissonant, to the point of being  annoying to even the trained ear! Then, after over 10 minutes, out of the blue came this gorgeous melody that closed the piece. It brought tears to my eyes. It was the journey that made it so memorable and effective.

In some small way, that is what I intended to happen for my recital. Here is the song:

It Is Not Death

Well, the big day is finally almost here. I find myself more relaxed than I expected I would be. Rehearsals have gone really well and all that is left is the technical which will be held tomorrow night at 7. Here is the complete text of the program this Saturday night at 7 in WMC:

Elegy: A Song Cycle for Baritone and Piano

1. O Captain! My Captain! text, Walt Whitman
2. Requiem text, Robert Louis Stevenson
3. Not Waving but Drowning text, Stevie Smith
4. Crossing the Bar text, Alfred Lord Tennyson

Troy Castle, baritone
Brian Buda, piano

The Holy War

1. Mansoul
2. Diabolus
3. Emmanuel

The curtain of John Bunyan’s allegory The Holy War rises on the town
of Mansoul, a beautiful, flourishing city. Originally a servant to King
Shaddai and his son Emmanuel, it eventually became enslaved to
Diabolus, an enemy of the King. Emmanuel then regained the town
through an epic battle and eventually restored it. Diabolus escaped
during the battle, however, and attempted yet another siege against the
town. Only with the help of Emmanuel did the attack fail, and
Diabolus continually seeks to return and destroy the good town of
Mansoul.
The musical landscape of The Holy War portrays the main characters in
the story. After the introduction, a fugal tour through Mansoul allows
us to absorb its intended innocence and beauty. The sinister music of
the second movement then portrays Diabolus’s attempt to seduce and
destroy the town. Emmanuel’s sweeping theme appears in the first and
second movements as well, but receives its fullest treatment in the third
movement, as He wars against Diabolus and eventually triumphs over
him. Even at the very end, we are reminded of Diabolus’s continual
schemes against Mansoul and of Emmanuel’s future ultimate victory.

It Is Not Death to Die
text, H. A. César Malan
trans. George W. Bethune, alt.

My composition recital check is days away and I just came from a great rehearsal with my soloist, orchestra and choir. In spite of all my measly worries as the composer, the people in my recital have come together and have begun to really make music together. I am exited about the possibilities for improvement over the next month as we move towards the recital date. But the first hump needs to be crossed on Saturday.

Dr. Forrest was very encouraging and hopeful after the rehearsal this evening. In spite of my short comings as a conductor, the music is really coming together. I am grateful to all the wonderful people who have so graciously given of their time to perform for me. Conducting aside, I don’t feel like I’m doing that much, they are the music.

In anticipation for a extremely busy semester, including choir, piano and percussion lessons, I’ve been composing music for my recital this summer. At this point, I am thinking that it will be divided into 3 sections, one of which I’m just finishing up writing.

While working on precomposition aspects of a different part of the recital I had an idea for a song cycle for baritone voice and piano. In case you aren’t aware, a song cycle is a grouping of several individual songs intended to be sung together as a whole, unified by a poet or as in my case, a topic or theme.

It is now nearly finished while the my other idea is still within the far reaches of my brain. Precomposition is now almost complete and it is time to write out what I have been thinking of for almost 2 years. School is looming ahead and there isn’t much time.

Looks different than when you last visited, huh? yeah, well, I had to change my theme so that I could post several pages of content. I’m keeping my eyes open for a better one but for now we’re stuck with this “Light” theme.

I’ve just added some new pages, basic stuff for now, that will eventually grow. I still have far to go in getting this site more functional.

Wow, the upcoming school year is fast approaching. One thing that I will be posting quite frequently is my composition recital for which the set dat is March 21, 2009. I have been mulling over several ideas this summer and have also written a few pieces that are possible entries into said recital. I’ll try and document my work as time permits. This next semester, I’ll be finishing up the writing of my recital (whether I want to or not) and will then begin the laborious process of gathering people to perform my work and rehearsing with them. It will be an exiting year.