On the Road to Houghton

October brought Joan and I to Houghton University in western New York, to attend the annual conference of the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers (CFAMC). Over the course of three days, we were able to hear works by fellow composers performed by students and faculty from the Department of Music at Houghton along with guest artists.

My contribution to the event was The Light of Light Descending, a multi-movement theme and variations work for solo organ, performed by Joan. The University Chapel, which also doubles as a performance space features a large Holtkamp organ, a wonderful instrument with striking colors. Joan and I arrived before the conference began to have sufficient time to explore the instrument and decide on organ registrations. The added time paid off; Joan did a tremendous job of presenting my work! The piece was well received by my colleagues and the students and faculty of the University. Joan and I would like to thank CFAMC and the fine faculty and staff of Houghton University for their support of my work at this

conference.

Picardy, the hymn tune that is the basis for this theme and variations set, is a French folk melody dating back to the seventeenth century. Twentieth-century English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams combined this tune with a Greek hymn text from the Liturgy of St. James of Jerusalem. This pairing of melody and text still exists today in many modern hymnals under the title of Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.

For more information about this composition, please consult the article from the Ruminations tab of this

website.

Coming soon: a complete performance of The Light of Light Descending on this website! Stay tuned for

more details….