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What the rose foretold

I don’t consider myself particularly superstitious, but maybe I should reëvaluate that assessment. I do hold to certain ritual acts, especially on New Year’s Eve, when coins must be tossed out the front door, and a dark stranger is admitted bearing gifts of coal, gold and whiskey to bring warmth, good fortune, and happiness for the new year. These rituals are ‘performed’ annually, more to amuse guests than to appease the Fates. But listen. Growing in my garden is something peculiar, almost preternatural –  a plant that has become a mysterious oracle – a rose that is seemingly able to… Read More »What the rose foretold

Ave Verum Corpus: a silver lining story

This is the true story of a little piece of music called ‘Ave Verum Corpus’. If you are a fan of choral music, you’ll probably be familiar with the text ‘Ave Verum Corpus’. If you sing in a choir, you might have performed settings by Mozart, William Byrd, or Elgar.  ‘Ave Verum Corpus’ was the first piece that I wrote for the Gallery Choir of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene back in March 2007, and it’s a classic tale of ‘a cloud with a silver lining’. On a dark Thursday night, one of those monstrous March snowstorms descended on… Read More »Ave Verum Corpus: a silver lining story

Xmas cake

Seasonal delights: Frost and fruitcake

Here is all of the very most pressing seasonal news. I finished the epic task of baking a traditional, dark and fruity Christmas Cake on ‘Stir Up’ Sunday with an old friend who is luckily a much more experienced baker than I am. She put me right on several culinary details that averted small disasters. Who knew there were different ways of measuring dry and wet ingredients! I do now. The recipe is a special one, passed on to me by my dear friend Janet, who in turn received it from her Mother. Who knows how far back the recipe… Read More »Seasonal delights: Frost and fruitcake

Road Not taken

A Frost Sequence

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…  I can’t count the times those words have gone through my head when walking in the woods, or faced with a tough decision. Robert Frost’s poems have been in my brain since I studied them in high school English class, and sang Randall Thompson’s Frostiana in LDSS choir so many years ago. This Saturday I have the wildly great privilege of hearing my own musical settings of three Frost poems premiered by the Elora Singers for the closing concert of the Elora Festival 2021. Complete information about the concert and tickets is found… Read More »A Frost Sequence

Winter Walk

The Year Without Music

When the German critic Oscar Schmitz called England ‘das Land ohne Musik’ that was not true. My blog headline is similarly inaccurate. Yes, 2020-21 has been a year without live music and it’s been devastating. But there has been innovation and creativity bubbling away under the surface. Conductors, patrons, performers, researchers, composers and technicians have been working on projects with confidence that live music will come back into our lives once this blasted pandemic has passed. Solitude does have its advantages. For some people, isolation is fuel for creative fire. I’m one of those for whom hacking out music alone… Read More »The Year Without Music

Howard Dyck’s review: ‘The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak’

Pax Christi Chorale, a 100 plus voice Toronto choir, scored another impressive triumph yesterday with the world premiere of Stephanie Martin’s new oratorio “The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak”. David Bowser, Stephanie’s successor as Artistic Director of PCC, gave us fine readings of English repertoire (Britten, Elgar, Vaughan Williams) before the intermission. The new choral work is a charming retelling of the famous Aesop fable about the sun and the wind arguing who is the more powerful. Stephanie Martin’s highly effective score was enhanced in no small measure by playwright Paul Ciufo’s delightful libretto. This is… Read More »Howard Dyck’s review: ‘The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak’

The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak

The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak (SWMC) In May 2017 Pax Christi Chorale gave me a beautiful parting gift: a commission to write a big new piece for them. Here’s what happened. De-programming with my colleague Paul Ciufo at O’Brien’s Irish pub after our first operatic project The Llandovery Castle, I recalled a childhood storybook shared with a group of wide-eyed, cross-legged kids in the public library. Book upon her knee, the librarian entranced us with Aesop’s ancient fable of ‘The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak.’ The Story Two elemental protagonists, arguing… Read More »The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak

Requiem mvt I

Where to find it

Best wishes for those going back to school, church choir, community singing – whatever your thing is, I hope you feel all the energy and goodwill that singing brings. Occasionally an email or FB message will come my way from a distraught music director looking for repertoire. Sometimes they are even looking for my music! So this blog is a guide of where to find my published pieces. Cypress Choral Music in Vancouver was my first publisher, and your first stop for sacred choral music like Four Motets, my little Mass for three voices, Kontakion and Hear my Prayer. Secular… Read More »Where to find it

Look what Larry’s doing!

My old friend and musical collaborator Larry Beckwith, recently retired as Artistic Director of Toronto Masque Theatre is conducting a very interesting programme performed by the Festival of the Sound Ensemble. The concert is called ‘Sounding Thunder’ and it examines the life of Francis Pegahmagabow, a local Ojibwe officer in the First World War who was decorated for his actions as a sniper. The piece is composed by Tim Corlis on a text by Ojibwe poet Armand Garnet Ruffo. Lucky for us we don’t have to go all the way to Parry Sound to hear this. There is a performance… Read More »Look what Larry’s doing!

Requiem mvt I

Requiem for All Souls

My sabbatical has opened up a vast frontier of unstructured time…[cue tumble weed,.. wind on the prairie,… nervous clearing of throat…] No courses to design, no choir rehearsals to prepare, no volunteers to recruit, no meetings to attend, no music to practice. What on earth to do with all of this lovely, precious, exquisite, empty time? Thankfully, it seems that just the right projects have come along at just the right time. I am putting the finishing touches on a Requiem mass for an Episcopal parish in California. Dr Ruben Valenzuela is the music director of All Souls’ San Diego.… Read More »Requiem for All Souls