We Three Kings
Nearly every December, Christmas sneaks up on me far too quickly, busy as I am with end-of-semester grading and final exams. I’m an admittedly nostalgic guy who unabashedly loves Christmas music, and every year I think to myself ‘I really should have written a Christmas piece this year’. Christmas 2015 followed a similar pattern, except for the fact that I received a much needed break from academic life in the form of a sabbatical during the 2016 spring semester. Suddenly finding myself with the freedom to explore and compose, I opened up a Christmas music book and spent nearly the entire month of February improvising on Holiday music.
This arrangement of We Three Kings was a joy to write and flowed effortlessly onto paper. Using only the original lyrics, my setting creates an expectant mood that underscores the solitary plight of this mystical trio as they journey across the desert to welcome the birth of Christ.
| Season or Event: | Advent, Christmas, Winter |
| Duration: | 1-5 Minutes |
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| SATB+SATB | 1' 45" | English | “Are Friends Delight or Pain?” is a brief a cappella double-choir movement (SATB + SATB, ~1’45”) excerpted from Cycle of Friends, setting Emily Dickinson’s epigram with concentrated intensity. The entire piece rests on a single sustained E—a pedal point whose meaning keeps shifting as the harmony moves through changing modes and colors. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| “Are Friends Delight or Pain?” is a brief a cappella double-choir movement (SATB + SATB, ~1’45”) excerpted from Cycle of Friends, setting Emily Dickinson’s epigram with concentrated intensity. The entire piece rests on a single sustained E—a pedal point whose meaning keeps shifting as the harmony moves through changing modes and colors. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SATB | 1'40" | Latin | Sanford Dole’s Ave Maria is a harmonized setting of the Gregorian chant antiphon. The soprano part is a metrical version of the Gregorian chant melody. The other parts create a harmonic world that is uniquely Dole’s; what his choirs refer to as the “Dolian mode.” | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sanford Dole’s Ave Maria is a harmonized setting of the Gregorian chant antiphon. The soprano part is a metrical version of the Gregorian chant melody. The other parts create a harmonic world that is uniquely Dole’s; what his choirs refer to as the “Dolian mode.” | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SATB ⋅ SSAATTB | 25' | English | A lyrical meditation on friendship and loss, Cycle of Friends is a concert centerpiece with texts ranging from Sappho and Emily Dickinson to Tang-dynasty China and pre-Columbian Mexico. A soprano soloist serves as an intimate narrator, while the orchestra supplies vivid, transparent color around lyrical choral writing. Completed and premiered in 1996, a newly revised […] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A lyrical meditation on friendship and loss, Cycle of Friends is a concert centerpiece with texts ranging from Sappho and Emily Dickinson to Tang-dynasty China and pre-Columbian Mexico. A soprano soloist serves as an intimate narrator, while the orchestra supplies vivid, transparent color around lyrical choral writing. Completed and premiered in 1996, a newly revised […] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SATB | 2'30" | Latin | A very rhythmic drive characterizes this exuberant setting of the traditional Christmas text, “Christ is born today” set in Latin. Choirs love to sing the jazzy rhythms and harmonies that require care in tuning, but once mastered create a contemporary sound world that will energize any Christmas concert or service. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A very rhythmic drive characterizes this exuberant setting of the traditional Christmas text, “Christ is born today” set in Latin. Choirs love to sing the jazzy rhythms and harmonies that require care in tuning, but once mastered create a contemporary sound world that will energize any Christmas concert or service. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SATB | 2'15" | English | Short choral blessing (text from the Old Testament) written as part of 2001-2003 Composer Residency at San Francisco’s National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi. Premiered by resident ensemble, Schola Cantorum SF | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Short choral blessing (text from the Old Testament) written as part of 2001-2003 Composer Residency at San Francisco’s National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi. Premiered by resident ensemble, Schola Cantorum SF | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| SATB | 3'20" | English | Musick to Heare, a madrigal on Sonnet VIII of William Shakespeare, was composed in 2006. It is written for a cappella SATB chorus, and although it has infrequent divisi a due in each of the parts, the use of smaller vocal forces (8 or 16 performers), with lighter Renaissance-style singing is preferred. Difficulty level: Difficult. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Musick to Heare, a madrigal on Sonnet VIII of William Shakespeare, was composed in 2006. It is written for a cappella SATB chorus, and although it has infrequent divisi a due in each of the parts, the use of smaller vocal forces (8 or 16 performers), with lighter Renaissance-style singing is preferred. Difficulty level: Difficult. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SSAA | 4'30" | Latin | Commissioned premiere performance at Davies Symphony Hall (San Francisco) by the San Francisco Girls Chorus. The explosive Lang work was appropriately contrasted by the excellent, gentle and more subtle O Magnum Mysterium by Kurt Erickson. This world premiere was commissioned by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Here the “mystery” part of the thematic trinity […] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Commissioned premiere performance at Davies Symphony Hall (San Francisco) by the San Francisco Girls Chorus. The explosive Lang work was appropriately contrasted by the excellent, gentle and more subtle O Magnum Mysterium by Kurt Erickson. This world premiere was commissioned by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Here the “mystery” part of the thematic trinity […] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SATB | 3'15" | Latin | Using jazz-influenced harmonies Dole seeks to capture the mystery implied in the text. Adding the text Noe, and omitting the concluding O beata Virgo verse, the piece builds to a peppier Noel! section before returning to the opening O magnum music and leaving the audience with the quiet chords of the mystery of the scene […] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Using jazz-influenced harmonies Dole seeks to capture the mystery implied in the text. Adding the text Noe, and omitting the concluding O beata Virgo verse, the piece builds to a peppier Noel! section before returning to the opening O magnum music and leaving the audience with the quiet chords of the mystery of the scene […] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SATB | 2'50" | English | Roll the Tide is a short, a cappella setting in a quasi-spiritual style of Elisabeth T. Eliassen’s poem of peace and longing. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Roll the Tide is a short, a cappella setting in a quasi-spiritual style of Elisabeth T. Eliassen’s poem of peace and longing. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||