With joy for all creation, I share my singing of the Ralph Vaughan Williams "Let All The World in Every Corner Sing" from his "Five Mystical Songs."
Since I'm making some progress in converting these old analog tapes into MP3 files, let me experiment one more time.
Once again, I'm singing duet with my soprano friend, Melissa O'Connor, but this time, "with an accompanist." Sadly, I seem to have lost all recordings of a major 1997 St. Cecelia Festival featuring our duets of Bach, Handel, Purcell, Mendelssohn, etc. This one piece was saved on a Psalm Festival composite tape. Finally, I was free to concentrate on singing rather than multi-tasking voice with piano. I don't have the text in front of me now, but here are a few phrases: "In thine hands are all the ends of the earth, and the high towering mountains thou hast made. Come let us worship and kneel before the Lord. For in thine own hands are the ends of the earth, Come let us adore; let us worship and kneel before the Lord." [Now, if only I could increase the volume recording "gain" from the original source. Sorry, once again, you will need to "turn up the volume."]
"Self-Accompanied" Vocal Works
It’s official! I’ve been asked to sing my 2001 setting of “The Lord’s Prayer” in church on Sunday. This time the pastor wants me at both 8:30 & 11:00 services. I'm honored to share a sampling of this Psalm setting. I say “sampling” because, originally, the music was composed for a multi-voiced choir and orchestra. Hopefully, I can provide at least a “flavor” of my music’s intent.
To simplify matters (and to avoid multiple rehearsals), I will accompany myself on piano. This isn't the first time for such singing without an accompanist. Here is a recording of "O Divine Redeemer" (Charles Gounod) with me playing the piano and singing baritone with a soprano from choir one Sunday. Even without the "real" pianist, "the show must go on." Enjoy!
I'm reminded that "Reformation Sunday" is drawing near. Here's my free improvisation on "A Mighty Fortress" played as a postlude (sometime back in the 90s). Once again, I had misplaced the printed music score and could only remember some snippets of the first page. I played a few motifs and then "made up" the rest. [The congregation surprised me with applause.]
Welcome ...
to Experiment #3 in an ongoing project of archiving my "live" concert performances as organist, pianist, harpsichordist, and baritone vocalist. Actually, today I am expanding the scope of work to include some "Swift-Cotrone Duo" recordings. The excerpt recording (above) is the J.S. Bach "Fugue from the C Major Double Clavier Concerto" performed in March of 2003. Enjoy! (You may need to "turn up the volume".)
This is my first attempt at entering a MP3 file in this journal. It is my intent to load primarily personal compositions; but, because this was one of my first recordings converted to MP3, I'll include it as a test ...the Bach "Prelude in C Minor" BWV #549 from a March 2003 concert:
