PROJECT : ENCORE™: Easter

For information, please contact Jeannine Wagner, conductor of The Wagner Ensemble who gave the work a second performance.  Premiered by The Gregg Smith Singers, Saranac Lake, NY, July, 1999 through a Meet The Composers grant. More recently, beautifully performed by The Wagner Ensemble, Jeannine Wagner conducting.  Recording is from The Wagner Ensemble performance
 

The Genesis of Exultation Mass

I chose this text because I think it asks us to acknowledge the minor misdeeds and omissions we permit in our everyday lives. So often we make small allowances for ourselves, fudge things that are difficult for us, or mistreat our loved ones in little ways. Most of the time we allow ourselves to ignore these things, hoping that nobody, perhaps not even ourselves, will notice. I think that those small things are often far more important than they seem, and I hope that this text, and this piece, will remind us to be more careful of ourselves and of one another.

In this work I try to give musical representations of joyful shouts and jubilant song, the vast calm of the sea, mystical murmurs by rivers and mountains, and human hope in the "strong right arm" of the King of the universe. I am a melodic composer, and I try to use a supporting harmonic language that is interesting and challenging to the performers, yet accessible and comprehensible to listeners.