Oh, All ye Works...

The book of Daniel has in the third chapter a bit that's usually cut out, separated and used on its own. It's called The Song of the Three Children (starting at verse 28 there) or Benedicite, Omnia Opera. It's a marathon.

So's my setting.

It's an SATB-with-divisi a capella setting, using the English text, and abbreviating out a lot of the repetitions of "Bless ye the Lord; Praise him and magnify him forever," which happens in literally every line. A little bit of inclusive language is added, as well (just "Children" instead of "Children of Men," for example) and for more, "Praise him" can become "Praise___"; "magnify him" turns in to "magnify God." So, "Praise him and magnify him forever" becomes "Praise___ and magnify God forever." Easy enough to edit in, even if I didn't.

About this setting, musically; it's divided along the lines of the text into four large sections. The first section details all these wonderful things in the heavens that are to bless, praise and magnify God forever. It's homophonic to begin with, then moves in to a more call-and-response segment.

The second section is all about the various meteorological and astronomical phenomena - heavenly bodies, weather effects... all of these things. This section is more soloistic, with an accompanying "Bless ye the Lord" running underneath it to provide a constant solid rhythm.

Third comes a slower segment, beginning with an introductory section on the words "O let the Earth bless the Lord," while the basses chant "For ever" (yes, it's two words) on a constant drone. Once we're through that, we get to the variety of things on and about the Earth - living things, geological features, that sort of stuff - culminating in "O ye children." Generally, the style is one of overlapping homophonies, where two voices will sing one line together and the other two will sing the next line together a little later, and so on.

Finally. A little fugue, going on in four voices for a while, until the basses drop out and begin singing the rest of the text, eventually bringing us back around to conclude as we began, with "All ye works of the Lord."

It's an interesting thing, revisiting a piece from six years ago. I was very firmly riding the Romantic Tonality section of my brain, which hasn't totally given me up yes. I do like the warmth of the chords and the logical sense of the structure. Would I write it this way now? ... probably not. My mind goes in other directions now. But I'm still proud of this, all the same.

PDF download is here,
PDF download with keyboard reduction is here.

Benedicite, Omnia Opera by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

New Britain

I'd like to make something clear.

I don't like Amazing Grace. I don't like the words, for various reasons poetical that I won't get in to. I don't like the tune. But most of all, I really, really don't like the standard harmonies.

When all is said and done, there's one of those three things I can do something about. So here's a set of alternate harmonies for New Britain. Mostly experimentations, I'm curious how others view them.

The whole collection are here for download

Four Harmonizations of "New Britain" by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Let me know what you think!

Fresh Hymnody

It so happens that at Crescent Fort Rouge United Church, where I am employed, we are currently in the midst of the ART festival - ART standing for "Arts Revealing Transformation." And it so happens that Crescent Fort Rouge United Church has asked for a new hymn to be written for the use of the church during this year's Lenten and Easter seasons which would fit in with the theme of the ART festival. Being a composer (and most definitely not a poet), I was asked to write music to a poem by congregation member Ted Dodd.

Ted provided us with a wonderful meditation on the transforming love of God, challenging In many respects - not least of which was the textual rhythm, which shifted with every verse. The content of the verses is reasonably similar in tone; the front half of the verse speaks of ills in the world, while the second half asks for change, newness and illumination. As such, I conceived of a tune which would shift from darkness to light, from minor mode and character to major. Moreover, it was necessary that the hymn be singable by a congregation with little exposure, and reasonably straightforward in the harmony. The result (published with Ted Dodd's permission) is seen below:

Available in spiffy PDF form here

Reveal, Transform by Mike Cutler and Ted Dodd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

For more on Crescent Fort Rouge, click this link...

and for more on the ART fest, click here.

Easter hymns (but not "Easter Hymn")

I know, we're in Lent.

But musically speaking, we should be looking at Easter Sunday and in to that season. It's only a month away, after all.

Ellacombe, a tune I know best as going with the hymn "The Day of Resurrection" (and the William Tarrant labour hymn "My Master Was a Worker," which is quite fun), is the subject of my latest fauxbourdon arrangement, as well as a 2008 fanfare prelude which I've used many times since then.

Without a whole lot of further ado, here is the music!

The prelude:

Download the PDF

Download the PDF

 It's fun to look back a few years and see what I had in mind. Sometimes I wonder.

Prelude for "Ellacombe" by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

And the aforementioned fauxbourdon, harmonically wandering a bit.

PDF link here!

Fauxbourdon on "Ellacombe" by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

It's a fantastic tune with a great many possibilities, and the more it's heard the better, as far as I'm concerned.

Such a fuss...

In my last post, I put up my setting of the text Surge, Illuminare, which is technically an Epiphany text, as an Easter offering. There was a row about it, by which I mean two people said something on Facebook. While I don't retract that - and certainly, the text is very appropriate to Epiphany, and is even used in the Epiphany lectionary - I feel that I should add an unequivocally Easter anthem.

So. For two soprano soloists, trumpet, keyboard, and SAB choir, here is a setting of the Exsultet, a text read (or chanted, or sung) at the Easter Vigil, the night before Easter Sunday. That doesn't mean that it's not suitable for Easter morning, of course!

The music!

First verse.

Solo II
Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!

Choir
Jesus Christ our King is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!

This verse introduces the alternating concept of alternating soloist(s) with choir, the harmonic space for the piece to live in (an open harmony in the Dorian mode) as well as the rhythmic language and the time shift between 3/4 and 3/2. The trumpet enters on the second page at the line "Sound the trumpet of salvation," of course. A series of Alleluias separate the first two verses.

The first page:

Second verse.

Solo I
Rejoice, O Earth, in shining splendour,
Radiant in the brightness of your King!

Choir
Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes forever!

Here the upper voice enters with the solo, accompanied by both trumpet and keyboard ostinati. The choir uses the same harmonic movement as before, by and large, carrying it only to a different conclusion. Another section of Alleluias moves us in to the third verse.

The third page of music, showing the end of the solo and the choir part:

Third verse.

Solos I and II
Rejoice, Mother Church! Exult in glory!
The risen saviour shines upon you!

Choir
Let this place resound with joy,
Echoing the mighty song of all God's people!

The soloists sing together in duet, leading to the choir's final verse consisting of new musical material. After which, the choir's Alleluias and Amens are accompanying the two soloists soaring overtop.

The fourth page:

And the sixth, showing the final alleluas:

This piece was commissioned by St. John's Cathedral, Winnipeg, under the direction of Tom Packham, and first sung there (in slightly modified form) Easter Sunday, 2012, and repeated by my own choir the following year at St. James' the Assiniboine Anglican. Tom didn't have a trumpeter available, so there is a version available without trumpet. I only had a single soloist, so she sang both solo verses and the upper solo line in the third verse and coda; I also had trouble with the choir, so my then-student played the choral parts softly (nearly inaudibly, from the congregation) on the organ while I conducted from the piano.

The PDF is behind this link, this one right here.
Trumpet parts in C - or in B-flat

Or if you don't have a trumpeter - all organ. Trumpet in the left hand, fluttery bits in the right, bass in the pedals.

Rejoice, Heavenly Powers! by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

An Easter offering

Six weeks until it's useful.

I wrote this setting of the Surge, Illuminare (Isaiah 60: 1-6) a few years back, using the text from the Canadian Psalter as my starting point. It's a tricky four-part setting, despite being mostly homophonic. It's in three broad sections:

First (after a brief introduction) is the main theme of the work, in commanding repeated unisons ("Arise! Shine!") and warm lyrical lines ("For thy light is come") leading through the text to the part about the nations coming to the light and the kings to the brightness.

Secondly, an imitative a capella segment, which eventually moves to a hymn-like setting with instrumental interjections. This leads to a key change down a half step from C to B major and a small recap.

The third segment begins with a recapitulation of the primary theme and text, and moves back from B to C into a new music segment with the text "The sun shall be no more thy light by day." The conclusion rounds out the theme with a final statement of the words "Arise! Shine! for thy light is come."

Surge, Illuminare! by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Available here in PDF form.

I intend to present it to my church choir at this week's rehearsal as our anthem for Easter Sunday, giving me six weeks to get it ready (and to arrange it for the trumpet player, hopefully) if they agree to sing it. Here's hoping!

This work also exists in open score, if the compressed two-staff choral part is bothersome.

Folk song for choir - Voyaguer rowing song #1

I'm a massive folk-song geek. I play some of the most complex music on one of the most complicated instruments in the world, and yet putting a simple vocal line with a simple accompaniment is often what attracts my attention. And my memories of the voyageur songs from my upbringing in French immersion schools are some of my favourites.

V'la l'bon vent is a voyageur rowing song. At least it is in my memory. It's got a wonderful energy behind it that drew me in as a kid, and about six years ago I wrote an arrangement for choir that I'm about to share.

PDF is available here.

There's the first three pages, representing two choruses and two verses. The verses are, by and large, unaccompanied. The verses are all in 5/4 time, while the choruses are in four-beat bars. The accompaniment basically stays out of the way, keeping time and reinforcing the harmony.

And yet, I still find the arrangement charming and fun. I hope you do too.

V'la l'bon vent by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.