Confirmation of performances in Oregon…and another performance in Australia

It’s been quite a good year for performances for me, despite not having written anything for a while.

However, I’m back with my nose to the grindstone, trying out some new composition software (Noteflight), and there will be new works out in short order.

It turns out that Crescent Moon received several performances from the Central Coast Chorale in Oregon, USA. I was contacted by the choir, and received confirmation that the piece was performed on April 22, 23, 24 and May 1, and that the performances went well.

It’s nice to hear back from choirs, and to hear the music is enjoyed 🙂

Quite recently, and closer to home, Southern Consort of Voices here in Dunedin, New Zealand was scheduled to perform the piece Deconstruct a Chrysalis for which I wrote the lyrics and Michael Winikoff the music.

However, it has had to be cut from the program due to a very busy rehearsal schedule. The choir has performed the piece before, and we have hopes it will find time in an upcoming concert program to perform it again. I’ll let you know when that happens 🙂

One performance that is going ahead is a performance of the same piece by the Australian Intervarsity Choral Festival in June this year. The festival will be held in Canberra, ACT, Australia. I’m not sure of the concert date or venue yet, but once I am I will post the details here, so if you’re in the neighbourhood you can attend.

There’s another Composition Competition to be held by RMIT Occasional Choral Society in Melbourne later this year. I’ll be writing a piece for the competition, and yes, it will be performed – I hope! Once again, once I know the details of the performance, in which a variety of new works by emerging composers will be performed by the choir, I will post the details here. So watch this space!

Finally, here’s a lovely performance by the Laramie High School girls in Wyoming, USA singing my short piece, Mary Sings a Lullaby. Thanks for performing my work. Enjoy 🙂

And another performance of the same piece by Victoria Rengel:

It feels like autumn today…Mabon is come!

Thanks to the Orfeo Universitari Choir of Valencia, Spain for performing Mabon: Song of the Autumn Equinox. This is absolutely beautiful:

Wind, fire, sea, stone
Breath, flame, wave, bone

Long light has lingered here, Earth still is warm,
Deepening shadows lost by the dawn.
Long darkness rising here, though heat lingers on,
Twist of the Equinox – Mabon has come.

Dead leaves fall silently, drift on the air,
Trees standing, slumbering – dry, cracked and bare.
Time passes quietly, echoing past:
Earth calls the winter in. Mabon at last!

Shadows through the mist I see:
Time passing silently.
Starlight, as the Spiral bends.
Moonlight, as the daylight ends.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day – performance by RMIT Occasional Choral Society

Here’s a lovely performance of my piece “I heard the bells on Christmas Day” by RMIT Occasional Choral Society, Melbourne.

I didn’t even know they’d performed it until recently!

Here’s the text, for those of you unfamiliar with Longfellow’s classic 1864 civil war poem, “Christmas Bells”. I’ve omitted a few verses, for length.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

The piece opens with just women singing (soprano and alto), then tenor join in, then bass for a verse, then a solo tenor verse before the full choir extend to six part harmony for the final verse.

I hope you enjoy the piece. I think they did a great job of it.