Here’s the last installment of my little sneak preview series for this Christmas season. Posted below are Once In Royal David’s City and Cradled Mid The Oxen. Once in Royal is the recurring theme song through the cantata; this is its second appearance, halfway through the cantata. The text,
“Jesus is our childhood’s pattern, day by day like us He grew; He was little, weak, and helpless; tears and smiles like us He knew. And He feeleth for our sadness, and He shareth in our gladness.”
is sung by children’s choir (although it’s optional- adults can sing it if children’s choir isn’t available.)
Then, the children sing “Cradled Mid The Oxen”, a tender lullaby which includes my favorite Polish carol, “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly”.
Hope you enjoy! The cantata will be in print with Soundforth next May, to be available for next Christmas season.
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Here’s another audio file from my forthcoming Christmas cantata, Lord of Glory. “God and Father, We Adore Thee” is a text that I pulled from an old Presbyterian hymnal- I wrote and arranged a new hymntune for it. This setting occurs halfway through the cantata, and the congregation joins in on the final stanza while the soprano descant soars above it…
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I had the privilege of meeting with Anthony Silvestri this morning regarding a piece that he and I are going to collaborate on, commissioned by the KU Choral Department. Anthony is the famous poet who has collaborated with Eric Whitacre on several pieces, including Leonardo Dreams, Sleep, and Lux Arumque. He’s currently working with Stephen Paulus and Libby Larsen, as well as a Whitacre piece commissioned by the King’s Singers for their 40th anniversary. But thankfully, he’s willing to make time for me, too. 
It’s a great opportunity, and my honor, to be collaborating with him. We had a good discussion about the tone, length, etc, of the piece we’re going to do. I learned several things from his perspectives from the poet’s side of things, already, and I think it’s going to be a very rewarding collaboration.
As usual, the terrifying feeling of “What am I going to write?!” is creeping in, but I’m ignoring it… Any honest composer will tell you that he/she gets those feelings, but any good composer learns to use that fear in a productive way, and get past it on each piece he/she writes…
My Christmas cantata, Lord of Glory, was written 3-4 years ago, and has been performed at several churches including SC, CA, and KS. But it’s finally going into print with Soundforth, next spring. The demo recording was produced for Soundforth this summer by my dear friends David Rasbach and Joan Pinkston, and they did a spectacular job. The choral work is superb- vibrant tone, great blend, well-shaped phrases, attention to detail and nuance, varied vocal tone for varied moods, and wonderful musicality- Thanks, David! The orchestral accompaniment sounds great too, especially Chelsea Cox’s oboe.
I can’t post the whole recording here, because Soundforth owns it, and will be selling it as part of the cantata release next June. The final version isn’t done yet, either; but I do have a rough cut, and Soundforth has given me permission to post a few audio files on here. So I’ll be posting a few of my favorite tracks from time to time, over the next few weeks. Hope you enjoy!
“Of The Father’s Love Begotten,” is the third song in the cantata. The chant melody has been left meterless as it would have been originally, and melodic phrases just keep spinning out over top of each other. The extended instrumental introduction will eventually have narration over it- it’s just not included here (it’s much more meaningful with the narration, which is all Scripture). Anyway, here’s the file…
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