Prelude and Harmonization: O Welt, ich muß dich lassen

Seeing as I'm presently preparing several of Brahms' Eleven Choral Preludes for recital, this tune came up: "O World, Now I Must Leave Thee." It seems to be fairly uncommon; the only work I could find using the tune is a Bach four-part setting and the two Brahms preludes, #s 3 and 11.

So, seeing as I needed to come up with a harmony for my choir to sing at the recital anyway, why not, I figured, pull in the tune for a choral prelude of my own?

And this then became the Ostinato on "O Welt..." in which I borrow a page or two from Rheinberger and put the theme in the upper voices (see Meditations, Op. 167, #10), as well as have the theme constantly shifting key (Character pieces, Op. 156, #11).

So without further ado: Ostinato on, and reharmonization of, O Welt, ich muß dich lassen

Ostinato on O Welt, ich muß dich lassen, and this harmonization by Mike Cutler are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Meditation on Wondrous Love - new project going slower than anticipated

All it took to get me back in to things was a donation. How about that?

Naw, I'm kidding. I've been busy with a bunch of other projects, mainly performing ones, and I just haven't been on the ball regarding my weekly writing plans. I'll get back to it eventually... I hope! I may even catch up on the few weeks I've missed.

So! first of all, I need to send out a gigantic Thank You to Carson Cooman, who

- gave generously to support my ongoing projects (third weekly prelude book starting soon!)

- suggested the tune to write a prelude on; and

- mentioned in passing an interest in single-manual, small-pedal-compass organs, providing an interesting creative challenge for writing this work.

So here, then, without further ado, is the Meditation on "Wondrous Love" (click for downloadable PDF) - just in time for Lent, no less!

So thanks again to Carson, and hopefully I'll have more in the pipeline shortly!

Mike

Meditation on Wondrous Love by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Your donations can help me keep writing these! Click to feed a composer!

Prelude recording #3

After a week-long illness followed by much business, I've lost a lot of ground on things I want to do. So before a weekend away, I was able to record the third Prelude:

The original post for this prelude is here!

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Prelude recordings - #1 and #2

I've begun recording my preludes!

The first two are here:

And here:

And the table of contents will be updated with links as I go!

Reminder: it's supporters that can make things like this much easier for me to do. GoFundMe is a great way to back me for making recordings and writing music!

Your donations can help me keep writing these! Click to feed a composer!

Hymn Tune Preludes #2 - St. Petersburg

So after last week's longer, more meditative piece, this week is a much shorter, more diatonic, and perhaps more functional work.

My writing project led me to open a hymnal and the first hymn I liked, I set. So this week, we get St. Petersburg, a Prelude (or suitable Introduction) thereupon.

Short, sweet, fun, and a bit tricky. Here's the score!

PDF can be found over here!

So this piece consists of a little pattern that the right hand plays three times over, derived from the hymn, which accompanies the tune in the left hand. In the video I use the softer Swell (coupled to the Pedal, as well) with 8, 4, 2, and Nasat, alongside the Great principle chorus up to the Mixture, which seems to give a nice, bright sound. I'd definitely use this to introduce the hymn, given the chance - why not? It can be used to set the pace, the tonality, and make everyone aware of the familiar tune!

If you would like to hear me try to tackle a hymn tune of your choosing, simply click the link below and send me a small donation towards my continued work. I'd love to hear from you and get some ideas for what people might like to hear from me!

Until next week.

Prelude on St. Petersburg by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Your donations can help me keep writing these! Click to feed a composer!

A New Project: Hymn Tune Preludes... #1 - Down Ampney

So after a brief hiatus while I was busy preparing for concerts and writing things for a wedding and playing arrangements of Beethoven and generally being a musician and working to get recordings made... and looking at that, that looks like a lot more work than it felt like... anyway! After the aforementioned brief haitus, I've started to make recordings. I recorded the Prelude in C, and am working on more preludes.

And I needed a writing project.

For those that don't know, I'm getting married in August, which is occupying a lot of time right now, which is fine and wonderful, believe me! But it means that until that craziness is over, I don't want to start in on a weekly project with a defined end-date (no set of 24, in other words) and meanwhile, I needed something to fill in for the hymn tune project. So I decided to combine preludes with hymn tunes and start in on a project I hope people will find useful.

And to go with that - I was able to record it.

Here's a PDF for the discerning organist.

The dedication reads For Tom, "Cathedral Cadence" and all. My friend Tom Packham is a fan of what he calls a "Cathedral Cadence" as an extension at the end of a hymn - a slide up a semitone over a pedal point and back down, So this whole work makes much use of that idea, even opening (and, of course, ending) with E-flat over D.

So I also want to announce a new donation incentive. Give me money, and you can name a tune for me to write a work on and record. Further details will be coming as I figure out a good way to work it, but give me money, and I'll take hymn tune requests! Caveats exist - the tune must be in the public domain (in Canada) and must be something that's reasonably workable and usable. I do enjoy obscurities but there are limits!

Until next week.

Meditation on Down Ampney by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Your donations can help me keep writing these! Click to feed a composer!

Prelude in B Minor

So this is it! The final of my first 24 preludes... nothing all that special, in and of itself. But it's the end of a cycle... and the start of a new one, next week!

Here's the PDF!

Prelude in B Minor by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Prelude in B Major

A rousing fanfare, a day late because of work and such.

Okay, a couple hours late. But I still produced TWO preludes this week. One more to go and I'm done one complete key cycle!

PDF can be found here

Prelude in B Major by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Prelude in B-flat Minor

A slow number for those who like... this sort of thing, I suppose.

This is me catching up for a missed week so I can be done 24 Preludes by the time of my Ego Trip concert!

Here is where one would rightly expect a link to a PDF.

Prelude in B-flat Minor by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Prelude in B-flat Major

A little harmonically-ambiguous prelude cooked up as my 21st preludial offering.

PDF link here!

Prelude in B-flat Major by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Prelude in A Minor

Made it just in time!

This little back-and-forth number has a form inspired by the chorus "Since by Man Came Death" from Handel's Messiah. Other than that, there's not much to say about it. So here it is!

Click here for a PDF!

Prelude in A Minor by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Prelude in A Major

Something a little different, I suppose. I'm blaming the flu for anything that's not especially ideal.

PDF attached to this link!

Prelude in A Major by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Prelude in A-flat Minor

Inspired unquestionably by the Prelude in B-flat Minor from Shostakovich's Op. 87 (in the structure) and the Prelude and Fugue in E Minor from Kabalevski's Op. 61 (in the theme); despite drawing inspiration from two of my favourite works from two of my favourite Russian composers, though, I still feel there's something that's ... not quite done with this one. Perhaps I'll revisit it at a later date (maybe to add a fugue?), but for now I have a deadline to meet!

PDF HERE

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Prelude in A-flat Minor by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Prelude in A-flat Major

Various life events conspired to keep this little toccata from being completed last week. So it's done for this week. The Prelude in A-flat, seventeenth in the series.

PDF AVAILABLE HERE!

Prelude in A-flat Major by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Prelude in G Minor

Two-thirds of the way through the keys, and I hit a bit of a block here, in that I've used up an idea I wasn't sure about in a way I wasn't too sure of. So this wound up a bit unusual, and I'm not sure if I like it yet. But! The fun of a deadline, even one which is self-imposed, is that the work must be done when it must be done.

So here's a PDF of the Prelude in G Minor, and the images are below.

Prelude in G Minor by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Prelude in G Major

A little longer, a little more... standard form, I suppose. I like it, anyway.

Here's a PDF!

Prelude in G Major by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Prelude in F-sharp Minor

Get your snappiest stops on and limber up those wrists and ankles. The Prelude in F-sharp Minor is all in repeated staccato pairs. A little fughetta for fun, in four equal voices; where the pedal is called for, just couple the manual down, and where you can reach it all in two hands (or in one) the pedal isn't necessary.

Have fun!

For PDF of this page, click here!

Prelude in F-sharp Minor by Mike Cutler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.