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.

Partita on a theme by Monk

NOTE: ORIGINALLY THE PIECE WAS NAMED "PARTITA," AND I FAILED TO CHANGE THE NAME OF THE BLOG POST BEING WRITTEN CONCURRENTLY WITH THE MUSIC. OOPS, I GUESS.

Anther hymn tune which occasionally I've been known to warm up to. While its repetitious nature and simple harmonies leave me a little cold much of the time, "Ascension," by William Henry Monk, is nonetheless an energetic and entertaining piece, full of opportunity for adaptation.

And so. Variations. A straight reharmonization could be interesting, too, but I didn't do that. There's not a lot of extremely difficult passagework (until the fugue, anyway). There was a deliberate attempt to vary the textures more than anything else, and so concepts of registration (except where needed in the pedal) and dynamics are left up to the performer, at least for the moment.

The theme, found in just about any hymnal I know, and the first variation. The theme is just the hymn spread across the open score, although there's no reason that it couldn't be played in the manuals alone.
The first variation is intended as a two-voice march-time piece. On its own, usable as an introduction to the hymn, if you don't mind a half-speed introduction. Not much to say about it, the right hand expresses the melody, the left hand dances around it, life is good.

The second variation is a trio in strict canon, because apparently I have a good dose of self-loathing. The pedals, at 4' pitch, have the theme, which, as you can see, has been converted to triple time, while the manuals have a canon. Despite the same notes as the theme, we're in E Minor here, not G Major.

Now we're wandering in to new territory. In the style of a sarabande, varying between E Minor and E Major.

Toccata. Straightforward. The theme's hidden in amongst all those sixteenth notes.

Back to a trio. The theme is reduced and stretched out and altered and all sorts of things, but it's there, trust me. It forms the basis for the left hand's ostinato, and the framework of the right hand melody in the second line.

And finally.

Fugue. I don't really know that there's much to say about it, but there it is.

And the finale. Back to G Major for an abbreviated restatement of the theme, and a long cadence.

So. A piece for Ascensiontide.
PDF link is here.
Comments are welcome.

Variations on Monk's "Ascension" by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Omni Die

Going from one of my least favourites to one of my most favourites - Omni Die is a hymn tune I most associate with the text "From the Slave Pens of the Delta," by Herbert O'Driscoll. As Rev. O'Driscoll is still alive, and his copyright is still active, I can't print or link his words, but this post isn't about his words as much as it is about the tune.

Omni Die - from the Trier Gesangbuch (Omni die dic Mariae), not that of Corner - dates from the late 17th century, and is a powerful and energetic tune, one that I could listen to and play with over and over. And so, I've provided here a prelude based on Baroque points-of-imitation techniques and a reharmonization, with the hope that people might get as much enjoyment as I do from this tune.

The prelude

Pick your favourite pedal-heavy registration and go. Light and clear preferred, I think, to best illustrate the contrapuntal nature of the work. And yes, in my opinion it's a viable introduction to the hymn - if you have a congregation that knows the tune and doesn't mind sitting for a few minutes while you play. Here it is.

Herein links the PDF

Prelude on "Omni Die" by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The reharmonization

... went places I wasn't totally expecting. But it was fun to write. I actually wrote it starting from the end and moving forward, so I knew I was working with a modal cadence and tried to make the rest of the piece fit. Instead, the whole thing went chromatic on me, much to my delight. And hopefully yours.

For PDF, click here!

Reharmonization of "Omni Die" by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Might be a bit of a challenge to sing. Shouldn't be too tough to play, though.

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.

More Lowry

I like the words of Robert Lowry. Not always his music - sometimes, but not always - but his words are often very useful. When I was, many years ago, looking for interesting hymn texts, I came across this little number: We are Pilgrims of a Day. I wrote an anthem on that text, as yet unused, but that's not what I'm offering up today.

No, today is a straightforward, ready-for-Sunday hymn setting. Well, except for the meter shifting on you every which way.

The basic meter I chose was a seven-beat pattern, which I felt fit the words reasonably well, as such:
We--- are pil-grims of a | day ...
Trav---eling on our cheer-ful | way ...

and also in the refrain:

We | jour-ney. hand in hand, (rest)
to | Can-aan's hap-py land; (rest)
O | come ye friends and neigh-bours ...

And all of that was a lovely idea, but there are these repeated interjections of "homeward bound, homeward bound" in the first verse and similar moments in the other verses. The actual hymn meter is 7, 6, 7, 5 (numbers which may mean nothing to you if you're not a church musician - that's the number of syllables per line) and an eight line refrain with a 5, 6, 5, 5 / 6, 6, 7, 6 pattern. Seeing poetry of that rhythmic nature, I am unsurprised to find that Robert Lowry's words tend to go with Robert Lowry's music and with that of few others!

So with little more ado, my second Robert Lowry hymn setting. I'm taking all bets as to how long until I set "How Can I Keep from Singing." (incidentally, I have made an SAT arrangement of that particular tune...)

Click for PDF download

The text is of course by Robert Lowry; as for the music...

We are Pilgrims of a Day by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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.