budaful music

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Let the countdown begin!!! Wait!? the clock’s already ticking!! For what, you ask?

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The detontion of this very web page. You don’t want to be caught browsing it when it happens!

I took part in the 3rd Annual Composition Recital this past semester on May 5th. I wrote a choral anthem entitled, as you may have guessed, Blest be the Tie. It is a reboot of the familiar Fawcett text set to a new tune. Having been involved in two other composition recitals other than my own, I feel compelled to say that this was by far the most successful of the three. In part, because of BJ’s own Chorale as the chorus that sang for it. Their performing of the choral music was well done as usual. You can hear two other pieces that were performed in the recital here and here. Such good memories!

Blest be the Tie

Every once in a while I get to thinking about the essence of music. You know, what music is. What is music to you? As I finish up my graduate studies and (hopefully) graduate in the coming month, I reminisce about the times when I sang around the piano with my family. That’s what music is. The hours that I spent preparing for my senior piano recital. That’s what music is. When a congregation sings a hymn of praise in worship to their Maker, yes, even that is music. Those moments in a musical performance that just gel with the entire ensemble and music… happens.

That is what music is.

As my inbox gets cluttered with messages from various music downloads sites displaying the latest hit single, I think, “That’s not music.” As I listen to my iPod as I work out with all of my favorite tunes, I think, “Even this is not music (though they are recordings of what music sometimes is and often we are content with just that).” When I look back at tonight and think about the pieces that the BJU Chorale sang, I grin and think to myself, “Yes, I made music that night. That was what music is.”

Thank you Dr. Cook and Mr. Flower, it has been a pleasure and an honor to make beautiful music with you.

What is music to you? May I suggest that if your music listening habits consist of mostly CDs and head phones, you are missing out on what music is. Go to a concert and hear the difference.

Wow, it’s been a week since my recital. It was well received and had a good audience in spite of the many other activities of the night. I think everyone’s favorite piece was the closing sacred choral work, “It is not Death to Die”. It communicated a great message and was a perfect closer for the evening. I’ll be getting the recording of the recital next week and then I’ll get one to each of my players and anyone who would like to purchase one for a modest sum. It was also captured on an HD camera which means it’s a very high quality image. I’ll be the first recitalist to have my recital on a Blue-ray disc. I don’t have a blue-ray player but from the looks of it with in a few years from now, most people will.

People have been asking me what I am doing now that my recital has past. I am trying to keep busy with my regular duties as a GA/student but I admit that I have needed to take a couple of days to just unwind. It was a tremendous time in my life, full of good memories and hard work. It is also just the beginning of the adventure.

Dr. Forrest wants to put together a student composition recital at the end of this semester. It has become a tradition for the past three years. I need to write something for this. I’m thinking something choral. Something Alfred Lord Tennyson. Or I could use a choir piece that I have already written…

In addition to my recital this week, I have been busy wrtting music for several other events, some unexpected. BJ Distance Learning is having another Help at Home Live show and I arranged a new hymn tune for the event.

I also composed music for a recital which, inceidentally falls at the same exact time as my own recital. It is a speech recital, evidentally music and speech recitals are allowed to be scheduled separately. Anyway, which ever recital people decide to go to they’ll be getting my music.

I finished composing the music for the student film that I had mentioned before. I think it will turn out alright. I’m hoping to be at the recording sessions so I can help the players out.

The cello arrangement I arranged has undergone surgery several times but it is at a place where it is quite nice. It will be performed this coming week here at BJ during our own Bible Conference, Monday afternoon.

What a weekend!!

Well, the big day is finally almost here. I find myself more relaxed than I expected I would be. Rehearsals have gone really well and all that is left is the technical which will be held tomorrow night at 7. Here is the complete text of the program this Saturday night at 7 in WMC:

Elegy: A Song Cycle for Baritone and Piano

1. O Captain! My Captain! text, Walt Whitman
2. Requiem text, Robert Louis Stevenson
3. Not Waving but Drowning text, Stevie Smith
4. Crossing the Bar text, Alfred Lord Tennyson

Troy Castle, baritone
Brian Buda, piano

The Holy War

1. Mansoul
2. Diabolus
3. Emmanuel

The curtain of John Bunyan’s allegory The Holy War rises on the town
of Mansoul, a beautiful, flourishing city. Originally a servant to King
Shaddai and his son Emmanuel, it eventually became enslaved to
Diabolus, an enemy of the King. Emmanuel then regained the town
through an epic battle and eventually restored it. Diabolus escaped
during the battle, however, and attempted yet another siege against the
town. Only with the help of Emmanuel did the attack fail, and
Diabolus continually seeks to return and destroy the good town of
Mansoul.
The musical landscape of The Holy War portrays the main characters in
the story. After the introduction, a fugal tour through Mansoul allows
us to absorb its intended innocence and beauty. The sinister music of
the second movement then portrays Diabolus’s attempt to seduce and
destroy the town. Emmanuel’s sweeping theme appears in the first and
second movements as well, but receives its fullest treatment in the third
movement, as He wars against Diabolus and eventually triumphs over
him. Even at the very end, we are reminded of Diabolus’s continual
schemes against Mansoul and of Emmanuel’s future ultimate victory.

It Is Not Death to Die
text, H. A. César Malan
trans. George W. Bethune, alt.

I’m making head way on my recital. Today I sent out what I’m hoping will be the final parts that my players will use. Of coarse we will change things here and there but I hoping the majority of changes will be behind me. There are only 4 more rehearsals until the recital date, I figure that few changes as possible are a good thing for consistency sake of the ensemble. It’s also getting to sound better too as people begin to see what it is I’m after.

I’ve updated my works page, it now holds things up to my compositions for my recital.

Today I passed my composition recital check. I am so relieved and tired after the event. It was thrilling to hear the music come together after all of the work my ensemble and I put into. Amid all the problems, mistakes and blunders the committee was very encouraging and I will be taking a close look at the comments that they made and considering some modifications to the recital. But all that aside, the check is over and now on to the recital which is now exactly 28 days from now!

It was strange, I walked into WMC (the same place my recital will be) for a recital later this evening and just enjoyed myself. I think that now with this behind me I can enjoy life a little more.

But only a little. Now my “extra” time can be filled with my neglected school work.

My composition recital check is days away and I just came from a great rehearsal with my soloist, orchestra and choir. In spite of all my measly worries as the composer, the people in my recital have come together and have begun to really make music together. I am exited about the possibilities for improvement over the next month as we move towards the recital date. But the first hump needs to be crossed on Saturday.

Dr. Forrest was very encouraging and hopeful after the rehearsal this evening. In spite of my short comings as a conductor, the music is really coming together. I am grateful to all the wonderful people who have so graciously given of their time to perform for me. Conducting aside, I don’t feel like I’m doing that much, they are the music.

WOW! What a treat I just had. This past night I enjoyed a two and a half hour choral concert performed by the St. Olaf Choir. They just made music and all <ALL> from memory. It is difficult to listen to anything else at the moment. I loved the program, from Durufle’s Ubi caritas to some Eric Whitacre and spirituals, the program was breath taking. Of special note was Penderecki’s Agnus Dei, for which the conductor, Mr. Armstrong, gave a brief explanation and helped the audience through the dissonant section. Very powerful. I remember jerking at the sound of the dissonant chord cluster. It was really moving.

As a fellow collegiate choir member myself, this experience pushes me to aspire to be more than I am. The level of musicianship displayed at the concert was a combined effort of each and every choir member. The conductor had done all the hard work before hand, they hardly needed him. They were all like strong links of a chain. Speaking of links, they held hands the entire time. I think that that had something to do with the sound as well. They were all connected, both phisically and aurally. What a connection.

I left loving choral music even more than I did when I came.