Scores

SAB

“Book of Sonnets” (SAB, piano) –A collection in progress:

Canst thou, O Cruel !

-A dark overture on a frustrated desire to be noticed

From fairest Creatures

Lyrical setting, mostly in unison and designed for a beginning choir

Who will believe my Verse?

Fast pace celebration of truth in praise

How careful was I

Lyrical waltz on the futility of restriction

Full many a glorious Morning

Stately allegory of a beautiful day’s progression and deterioration

When thou shalt be dispos’d to set me Light

Love’s perjury in a lyrical octotonic setting

When I do count the Clock

Commentary on the triumph of time and decay

Sin of Self-Love

Lively piece on how true love makes our frantic ego look kind of silly

Betwixt mine eye and Heart

Mutual courtesies dance a stately minuet over the loneliness of absence

In faith, I do not love Thee

Playful senses give way to an enslaved heart in this fast dance

When I consider everything that Grows

Nature’s flow grafted to a free-meter cultivated celebration

Some say thy fault is Youth

Driven argument that both faults & graces may be seductively misused

Like as the Waves

Noble lines on the immortality of verse over a hypnotic ostinato

How oft when thou, my Music, music Play’st

Jazzy valentine for the keyboardist

Why is my verse so Barren?

Simple piece about the worth of simple, classic beauty

Mine eye hath play’d the Painter

A quick march chiding technique for missing the whole point

Weary with Toil

– Love worthy of a sinuous lullaby keeps love awake

What is your Substance? (Baritone solo, SAB, piano)

Other beauties are just shadows in this Blues-inspired call & response

My tongue-tied Muse

Celebration of love that is without a need for the perfect word

That time of Year (SAB a cappella)

Sparse setting of a beautiful sonnet on old age

Not from the Stars

Predictions of a reluctant lover’s fate set to a spirited proclamation

Farewell

March from fantasy into reality; mostly in unison

Tis better to be Vile

Little grotesque dance on the injustice of an evil reputation

To me, fair Friend

A very lyrical dance of timelessness

Music to Hear

Race of counterpoint likened to progeny

No more be Griev’d

A gentle dismissal of a lover’s faults becomes a confession of self-guilt

As a decrepit father takes Delight

Swinging little piece with interdental fricatives

Is it thy Will? (SAB a cappella)

Waking self-aware from a flowing dream

Some glory in their Birth

Lovely lies of absolute love’s unspoken fear

Lord of my Love

Madrigal on the frustration of a loyal, unrequited love

What’s in the Brain (SSAATB a cappella)

Repetitive rhythms and a rich texture help transform Old Love to First Love

But be Contented

Flowing, lyrical dedication of spirit

Sweet love, renew thy Force

Time’s weariness is overcome by contract in this stately tresillo

But do thy worst to steal thyself Away (Baritone solo, SAB, piano)

Hymn of assuredness on immortality; with one fatal flaw

Unthrifty Loveliness

Energetic, witty sonnet on the love life of bankers!

My Love is Strengthened (High Sop. solo, SAB, piano)

A nightingale’s song about singing a little too much

The Forward Violet

A musical field of flowers painted with the nodding lilt of a meter in five

Devouring Time

A lover may rail against decay but an artist creates immortality

Not my own Fears

Lyrical comparison of the Bard’s verse to the promises of the self-crowned

No longer mourn for me when I am Dead

Driven piece on the war between eternal love and eternal memory

Since I left You

Nothing looks true in this slow, turbulent journey

So is it not with Me

Fun little dance mocking hyperbole

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s Day?

Flowing, warm setting of the world’s best known sonnet

El Cant dels Ocells [Carol of the Birds] (Short alto solo, SAB, piano)

Lyrical lines with a very lively piano

Fear no More (SAB)

Shakespeare’s beautiful lamentation set a cappella

God rest you merry, Gentlemen (SAB)

Traditional melody set to a quick, shifting meter

Song of the Gardener (SAB, piano)

Folk-like setting of an allegorical love poem; can be used for Holy Week

Will there really be a “Morning”? (Baritone solo, SAB)

An unsynchronized setting of Emily Dickinson’s search for hope

SATB (and other mixed chorus voicing)

“Centenary Antiphon”:

1. Pied Beauty (SATB, pipe organ)

-Speckled celebration of God’s imperfect natural world

2. Great God! (Unison, pipe organ)

-Concluding hymn to Nature’s God

Didn’t it Rain (SATB, piano)

– Fun, wild storm for everyone

Gospel of Mrs Sadie (High solo, SATB, piano)

In memory of the saintly women of the Church

It takes a Village (Various soloists, SMATbB)

Rhythmic celebration of community

Map of the World (Various soloists, SMATB, piano)

– Funny cantata on the evolution of political geography

“Modern Living” (SMATB) -orig. for 5 voices

1. Mister Gecko

– A tourist completely lost in the Global Village

2. Cave

– Neo-Paleolithic redecorating gets out of control

3. Modern Age

Apathy is hip when five voices cocoon in technology; Bass solo featured

4. Blue Whale

– The ultimate Holiday gift; Mezzo solo featured

5. Coffee Resistance Song

Energetic look at the economic side of way too much caffeine

Orison

Simple Benediction on walking thru the darkness with the Lord

Take my Hand [an anniversary anthem] (Alto solo, SATB, piano)

Most of the men’s parts are in unison

What’s in the Brain [from “Book of Sonnets”] (SSAATB a cappella)

Repetitive rhythms and a rich texture help transform Old Love to First Love

Upper Voices

Emily’s Birds (Unison, piano)

Three short songs for Children’s Chorus after the poems of Emily Dickinson

“Needlepoint”:

1. Nightingale (SMA, piano)

-Tonal ballad on love and blaming the music

2. Needle’s Eye (SA, piano)

-Fun, little nonsense rag

3. Over Me (SMA, piano)

-Poignant, flowing lullaby

“Posthumous Keats”:

1. A Song of Myself (SA, piano)

-Lyrical, bi-tonal setting of a young runaway’s discovery

2. The Dove (SMA, piano)

Lyrical piece on misunderstanding a wild heart; set to an octatonic scale

3. Meg Merrilies (SA, piano)

Celebration of the strange in compound meter

Weary Land (SA, piano)

Mature, Spiritual lullaby on the suffering of Mary’s fleeing family; orig. for High School age choirs

Lower Voices

His foot on the Treetop (TBB)

Christmas lullaby with a soft, rich sound

When you were gone I wished you were here (Tenor solo, TBB)

A soloist against a wordless choir on not having the right words; can be done with a quartet

Zolgotz! (Treble, Cambiata, Baritone, Bass, piano)

From a folk poem on the McKinley assassination; can be done TTBB, piano

Published (by G. Schirmer)

Sky can still Remember (SAB, piano)

A carol; one of Gray’s favorite works

Boatman Stomp (Treble, Cambiata, Baritone, piano)

Emmett’s “Boatman Dance” set to new music; a classic festival piece

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