Music Catalog

The Ave Regína Cælórum is an ancient Marian prayer of the Catholic Church, one of four Marian antiphons. The text can be translated as:

Hail, O Queen of Heaven enthroned.
Hail, by angels mistress owned.
Root of Jesse, Gate of Morn
Whence the world's true light was born.

Each chorus is mainly homophonic, with both choruses interweaving smoothly in simple counterpoint. The result is a lush field of 8-part harmony over a substratum of quintuplets played by the piano. The harmonic language is tonal, triadic, and major.

This version of Ave Regína Cælórum was performed by the Vittoria Ensemble of Denver, Colorado as part of their Colorado Composers Showcase.

It's interesting how this piece came to be — I began, as I often do, by composing the piano part. Afterward, it seemed à propos to add a very thick-textured, homophonic eight-voice choir, and I began looking for a text that could fit. The Ave Regína Cælórum seemed perfect — it fit rhythmically, and I love texts that honor the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, I never composed the eight-voice arrangement I'd envisioned. Instead, I created a two-part children's choir setting first (see other listing). Later, when the Vittoria Ensemble showed interest in my work, I took the existing two-part arrangement and expanded each voice into its own four-part choir, which ironically made for a more interesting piece than I had thought of initially.

The spring when I turned ten, my mom worked as a waitress at a retirement home close by. I used to go every night after the residents had finished dinner and change the menu board for the next day. In exchange the kitchen staff always gave me free dessert, and Mom and I would walk home together when she was done cleaning up.

There was a baby grand piano in the dining room of the retirement home that I loved to play when they'd let me. I'd never had piano lessons, but I had a keyboard at home. Mostly I played long arpeggios up and down the piano, back and forth, until someone told me to stop.

Most of the waiters and waitresses besides Mom were high school students. There was one waiter in particular, Bill Richards, who was a musician and composer. One night after the vacuuming was done, he sat down at the piano and played a piece he'd written. It was just about the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. I was completely mesmerized. When I got home, I went straight to the keyboard and tried to remember what Bill had played. The beginning was a simple pattern of upward-leading broken chords that sounded to me like the words "open up" being spoken. The piece was also in the key of C# major, which was a new challenge for me — I'd never tried playing in such an exotic key before. Eventually, as the days and weeks went by, I developed my own version of the piece, based on what Bill had played but adapted to my own ability and with some of my own material filling the gaps where I couldn't remember Bill's chord progressions.

Summer came and Bill went away to college. I never heard him play his unnamed piece again, although I played it endlessly over and over myself. I added violin, glockenspiel, and synthesizers, composed a melody to soar over its ostinato pattern, and made several recordings of it on cassette tape. Three years later, Bill came to town to visit, and I was excited to show him what I had done with his piece. For some reason, though, we never managed to get together. As time passed, I played the piece less and less, although its simple beauty had left a mark on my musical sensibilities.

Late one night over a decade later, in a music room up at the university, I played the piece on a real piano. It had been refined over the years; seasoned; re-adapted to a more mature style, but its freshness was still there. I decided to try to track Bill down on the internet.

It was then that I discovered that, after an amazingly successful career in computer programming, Bill had tragically drowned in a boating accident. He would never know the impact his song had had.

Later, I arranged "Bill's Song" for Frontier Academy charter school's elementary choir (see other listing for the piano-only arrangement). After realizing that there could be no appropriate words to fit the existing melody, I chose to use solfège syllables. The first four bars of the piano part have remained intact, a verbatim copy of Bill's original "open up" introduction from so long ago.

Bill's mother still lives in my town. I found her on the internet and brought her a recording of "Bill's Song," complete with the children's voices, one August afternoon. She recognized it right away, and showed me a picture of Bill from high school. After leaving town, he had gone on to travel the world, working odd jobs and playing music for people, before becoming a computer programmer and entrepreneur. His short life had been quite an adventure.

I hope this arrangement does justice to Bill, one of my greatest musical influences.

Adóro Te Devóte is an ancient Eucharistic hymn of the Catholic Church. The well-known melody was originally composed as a Gregorian chant for a Latin text written by St. Thomas Aquinas.

This is a 5-voice modern harmonization of the traditional chant melody. We offer a mixed choir and an all-men's arrangement, both in the same key.

This same arrangement is also available with the original Latin chant text, under the title "Adóro Te Devóte.

Happy or Sad World was composed as part of a commission for Frontier Academy charter school in Greeley, Colorado. The school's music teacher worked with the English teacher to have students in 3rd through 5th grades write poetry on a number of themes. I then chose four of the best poems to set to music. The words to Happy or Sad World were written by Orrin Marcy.

Happy or Sad World is a simple, melancholy song with the occasional bright splash of hope in the piano harmony. The two vocal parts act nearly as a round and have the same tessitura.

In the Rain is an exciting song about the magic of summer rainstorms. It jumps back and forth between modes, time signatures, and tempos to achieve a truly exhilarating effect. It is scored for two sopranos and alto, with an optional divisi in the alto part.

In the Rain was composed as part of a commission for Frontier Academy charter school in Greeley, Colorado. It has been performed by the Greeley Children's Chorale as well as the choirs at Chappelow K–8 Arts Magnet school.

On and On is a bright, hopeful piece about overcoming the challenges of life. It's an upbeat, syncopated piece with interludes of heartfelt piano. On and On was commissioned by the Greeley Children's Chorale in honor of their 25th anniversary celebration.

Warm Hugs was composed as part of a commission for Frontier Academy charter school in Greeley, Colorado. The school's music teacher worked with the English teacher to have students in 3rd through 5th grades write poetry on a number of themes. I then chose four of the best poems to set to music. The words to Warm Hugs were written by Nate Sereff.

Nate wrote the poem Warm Hugs about his mother's gift shop, which is also named Warm Hugs.

Warm Hugs has been performed by the Greeley Children's Chorale.