ForrestWorks

“St. Patrick’s Hymn” will be premiered at the Peace Center, downtown Greenville SC, on Saturday Oct 23. Most of my premieres are all over the place, but this one is virtually in my backyard! Can’t wait to hear it.

Finished up A Christmas Lullaby today- it’s a new version of A Basque Lullaby, with Christmas lyrics by the best lyricist I know- Charles Anthony Silvestri. It’ll be premiered at Christmas At The Cathedral in Sioux Falls, SD, this Christmas, and will be available from Hinshaw Music next spring.

Ordinarily, neither I nor Hinshaw would want to get anywhere near re-texting an existing match of text and music….but in this case, the music really seemed to beg for it, and I’ve had multiple requests for a Christmas version. And, this isn’t the first time Tony has been called upon to re-text an existing choral piece (if you read this blog, you probably know the story of Whitacre’s “Sleep”). I was happy to entrust this project to Tony, who nonetheless called it the most challenging project he’s had yet. If you read below, you’ll see why; retaining the short, unusual line lengths, preserving the rhymes, and yet saying what we wanted to say, in the style we wanted, was insanely difficult! I’m still chuckling at the fact that Tony and I hashed out the details of the new text via Facebook Chat, late one night. An unusual way to collaborate! But, happily, we worked it all out.

So- if you’re one of the ones who asked for a Christmas version of Basque Lullaby, keep your eye out for it next spring…or take a listen in Sioux Falls this December!

Here’s the first stanza of Tony’s work. The man is a.maz.ing.

Lullaby, Lullaby,
Rest now my darling,
Close your eyes, dreaming is nigh
Lullaby, Lullaby,
Angel voices softly singing
Carols for their newborn King.
Lullaby, Lullaby,
Whisper and sigh,
Lullaby, Lullaby, Lullaby.

I was going to go to bed two hours ago….but instead, I spent most of that time hacking through a text with Tony Silvestri on Facebook chat. (No doubt, that’s how George and Ira Gershwin collaborated, right?) The good news is, we worked out the wrinkles and snags in what Tony called one of the most challenging projects he’s done, and we now have a Christmas text for A Basque Lullaby.

PS) It’s GORGEOUS.

Congratulations to James Barnes, my dear friend, mentor, and doctoral teacher. He’s been commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic! It doesn’t get any better than that!!! I’m SOOOOO excited for him!

http://www.news.ku.edu/2010/august/24/berlin.shtml

I had fallen behind on maintaining some of the pages and listings on my website. I think things are updated now- especially the “New Music” tab (which is new), and the “current commissions” and “upcoming events” under “About Dan”.

PS) I also turned off Auto-Play on the audio player; but feel free to press play over there on the right if you want to hear sound files.

Check these out- South Dakota 2010 Senior Honor Choir, performing the Three Nocturnes superbly, with all the percussion (!)…and from memory. Impressive! Fabulous work by the choir under the outstanding direction of Dr. Kevin Fenton. (Kevin, someday we need to meet! )

Note especially the climactic section of the second movement, when all the choral and instrumental parts absolutely GLITTER. I LOVE IT!

Hmm. I’ve never heard 600 auditioned singers sing any of my pieces, conducted by anyone, let alone by Craig Arnold! But I wouldn’t mind hearing this in November! (Scroll down on the link to the choral audition section).

Since I’ve last posted on here, two more pieces have been completed:

St. Patrick’s Hymn, for chorus and orchestral winds/brass (Brahms Requiem instrumentation minus strings!). (Hinshaw Music 2012) It’ll be premiered October 23 by the Greenville Chorale (who commissioned it) and Greenville Symphony, at the Peace Center in downtown Greenville SC. Can’t wait!

I Know That My Redeemer Lives, for SATB chorus and piano 4-hands. (Beckenhorst Press, fall 2010). It’ll be premiered October 30 by the North Greenville University Concert Choir (who commissioned it), at their fall choral festival event.

Meanwhile, this week I’ll be off to two publisher conventions: Shawnee’s Music in the Mountains in East Stroudsburg, PA (Thursday night concert and Friday morning devotions and workshop), and Hinshaw’s Celebration (Friday night concert includes some of my music, and Saturday I’ll present a few pieces, I think). Looking forward to them!

There Is Faint Music was Hal Leonard’s top-selling Christmas anthem last year. I had some requests for an orchestration for it, but never had a commission or a chance to write it on my own. This year, the Columbus, IN Children’s Choir has commissioned an orchestration for it, and will be premiering it on Sunday Dec. 5.

I’ll be selling the orchestration myself (not Hal Leonard). It should be available mid-October, in time for preparation for Christmas. If you’d like to purchase it for this Christmas, let me know via my contact form, and I’ll get you on the waiting list.

Here are my two favorite videos of There Is Faint Music (with piano accomp). (Note that the anthem is available for SATB or SSA.)

The Hwa Chong Choir (Singapore) sang A Basque Lullaby as part of their program at the Festival of Songs in Olomouc, Czech Republic, last month. They won the competition. Listen and you’ll hear why.