Choral Music

I arranged this for Craig Hella Johnson and his peerless Conspirare when they had the inspired idea to commission new arrangements of some of the African-American spiritual repertoire for concerts in 2010.

For unaccompanied SATB or TTBB choir. Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke; translated by John L. Mood. Commissioned and introduced by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington in 1996: revised for performance (TTBB) in December 2009 by Empire City Men’s Chorus.

For unaccompanied SATB choir. Poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Commissioned and introduced by the Paul Hill Chorale in 1996: performed and recorded in November 2009 by Octarium: Krista Lang Blackwood, music director.

For double SATB choir. Translation by Stephen Mitchell of verses from the Tao te Ching. Commissioned and introduced by The Dale Warland Singers in Minneapolis, MN, June 2000: Dale Warland, Music Director. Recorded by Esoterics in May 2008: Eric Banks, music director.

Three folksongs arranged for soprano or mezzo-soprano solo and SATB choir. Commissioned and introduced by the Congressional Chorus of the United States, Hart Building Atrium Concerts, Michael Patterson, music director.

I discovered this Marcus Argentarius poem while writing the libretto for Lysistrata; it had no place in that opera, but its exuberant fatalism stayed with me, so I leapt at the chance to score it for SATB choir and piano when Harold Rosenbaum and his New York Virtuoso Singers invited me to join his 25 X 25 anniversary recording.

For unaccompanied SATB choir. Poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Commissioned and introduced by the Gregg Smith Singers in 2009.

For SSAA choir and piano or chamber ensemble (piano, violoncello, two clarinets.) Poems by Emily Dickinson. Commissioned and introduced by The Young People’s Chorus of New York at the Society for Ethical Culture, New York, N.Y., April 2006; Francisco Nuñez, music director.

The enterprising recording company Pentatone, which is firmly committed to new American music, commissioned from me this setting of Wendy Cope’s lovely poem for chorus and chamber orchestra; San Francisco’s chamber choir Volti sang the premiere, which was released on disk that winter.

For double SATB choir, soprano solo, and piano. Commissioned and introduced by Choral Arts Society of Washington at the Kennedy Center, June 2000: Norman Scribner, Music Director.