Richard Wayne Dirksen

Works

Letters to Freeport

Priceless descriptions of his life in those years, including his very first Easter Day at WNC.

The Temper

Setting of Herbert’s poem for SATB, orchestra, piano solo, and five (5) chanting choirs. Composed for the 60th anniversary of the National Cathedral School and involving all 380 students.

804 – The Fiery Furnace

Composed for the Dedication of the Cathedral’s South Transept. This addition of space led to a dramatic disposition of forces: The school Glee Clubs with fanfare trumpets in the North Transept balcony; the Men & Boys Choir with chamber orchestra in the South balcony, and the full Choral Society with organ and timpani in the Great Choir.

A Song for Simeon

Composed upon the death of T. S. Eliot in February 1965. A setting of his “Song for Simeon”.

Treasure Chest

“Captain Kidd buried treasure / as most pirates usually do.” The text by a NCS 4th grade student struck Wayne’s fancy.

Jonah

Seven movement oratorio with libretto from the Book of Jonah and Father Mapple’s sermon in Melville’s Moby Dick.

Faith of Our Fathers

A symphonic pageant written for the sesquicentennial of the District of Columbia and to open Carter Barron Amphitheater.

The Houseboat on the Styx

Based on a whimiscal novel by John Kendrick Bangs, the shades of famous men and women vie for control of an elegant club on the River Styx.

The Rose and the Ring

Complete show here.From an 1854 Christmas Pantomime of William Makepeace Thackery. Magical tokens cause the holders to love or be loved, bringing personal and political problems to the kingdom of Crim Tartary.

Incidental music for Galileo Galilei

Brecht’s play includes poetic quatrains before each scene as well as a marvelous “Ballad of the Orders” mocking society stratification. A humanist and satirical masterpiece. Audio includes music cues as well as Dirksen’s own digest of the full show.

The Ballad of Dr. Faustus

Christopher Marlowe’s Faust is transplanted to the American frontier. Videos below, music cues also posted.

Sing Ye Faithful

Audio & Video His last – and by his own estimation, best – anthem. The closing Queens Change bell effect is a charming farewell gesture.

Father, in thy gracious keeping

Ineffably sweet.  It ends in A major, a half-step down from where it begins.  The orchestral double-reed / horn / string accompaniment is deluxe and has a gorgeous violin descant for the fourth verse.

Welcome Happy Morning

Audio & Video. This nine-minute mini-cantata sets the complete Fortunatas text with organ, brass & timpani and would make a great addition to an Easter concert. Score + audio presentation is here, but it awaits a definitive recording.

The Knights of God

Audio & Video. Alternates The 1940 Hymnal plainsong (#132) for The eternal gifts of Christ the King with rushing horsemen on white horses.  A commission from Frank Boles and St. Paul’s, Indianapolis.

Song of Mary at the Manger

Audio & Video. Running out of TOP FIVE slots, but this Auden setting is profoundly moving: Why was I chosen to teach his Son to weep?  The ending of the organ version makes it preferable.

A True Hymn

Really a sacred song – text by George Herbert – with optional obbligato instrument. For this commission Dirksen received ‘a case of excellent wine.’

At break of day

This complex piece finds Dirksen systematically working out change ringing bell motifs at length as well as exploring his ongoing fascination with mixed and hemiola rhythms. The attached score is regrettably partial.

Alleluia, A Newe Work is Come

From the 1961 York Cycle Play music.  Also available as a movement in the 1965 Suite for Organ, Trumpet and Handbells (D. 513).

Night

A haunting major / minor nocturne, suitable for unison or solo voices with optional flute obbligato.

THREE ANTHEMS

These were commissioned by Christ Church Christiana Hundred in Wilmington, Delaware.

The Nativity

Audio & Video. Another one of my TOP FIVE works.  The flute obbligato positively sparkles.

A Holy Charivari

Composed for the wedding of John Fenstermaker, then Assistant Organist at the Cathedral.  Flute, handbells, harpsichord, finger cymbals…. 6/4 alternating with 3/2….what’s not to like?

Welcome all wonders

Audio & Video. Written in 1957, the same year as Daniel Pinkham’s Christmas Cantata, the two pieces share vivid brass writing and intense rhythmic energy alternating with lyric beauty.  This exists in many forms: Organ and brass, full orchestra, winds only…there’s even an arrangement for SSAA choir.

FIVE MOTETS

These five Latin motets, along with the two sets of canons were written at various times for the men of Cathedral Choir to sing in the summers when the boys were away.  This entry has all available recordings, plus a sizzling video from George Steel’s VOX in concert at the Guggenheim Museum.

Chanticleer

Audio & Video. Dirksen’s notated half-note=96 is unplayable – he’s merely saying NOT TOO SLOW.  But the circumstances of its composition actually dictate the tempo: the performance should be exactly 2′ 30″!  Also – don’t miss the Choral Arts Society’s orchestral version here as well.

A Child, My Choice

His most well-known and well-beloved carol. SATB a capella, simplicity itself.

Psalm for Christmas Day

Audio & Video. One of the editor’s TOP FIVE works.  How DID those troops of angels come down??

Hilariter

Audio & Video. For Easter Day.  The B section is one of Dirksen’s longest and most effective build-ups to a shattering climax. It’s also a dandy timpani solo. Now back in print by Jubilate Music Group!

Psalm 46

This singular work is really a through-composed setting of the psalm in Anglican Chant style inspired by the re-scansion of the Psalm in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. “Be still then, and know that I am God” is utterly convicting.

Humbly I Adore Thee

Adore te, devote receives a comprehensive Dirksen makeover: 1) it’s in 7/8 throughout, 2) the middle verses are backward, in minor, 3) verse 3 goes to E-flat minor for the Lord’s own death, 4) ends with a sweet simple AMEN.

It was beautifully rendered on Quinqugesima 2025 by David Sinden and the choir of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church Ladue, Mo. (see video below)

ANGLICAN CHANTS

In 1978 The Right Reverend John T. Walker succeeded William F. Creighton as Bishop of Washington and asked that the newly approved Book of Common Prayer (1979) be used exclusively for all cathedral services unless he gave permission for exceptions in specific circumstances. Immediately, the twenty or more psalms sung in the Offices each month had to be pointed, and suitable chants adapted or created since the translations were completely different from the earlier prayer book. During the next two years new chants were written for the following psalms. My own theories of pointing were developed for them. They are meant for choir performance; none are for congregational use. Some are triple chants, the rest double, often irregular (irr.) in rhythmic treatment and harmonically sophisticated. Antiphons (ant.) are added where the text invites their use.

Word of God, come down on earth

Rob Lehmann did a sophisticated and lovely arrangement of this tune for his choir at St. Michael & St. George, St. Louis during the 2020-21 pandemic.

Jubilate Deo

Audio & Video Dirksen’s first published work (1960) bears several life-long trademarks: A “scattered” introduction which sets mood & tempo but not theme; far-flung harmonies suavely coming and going (E-flat minor in a D minor piece), and the first of many lovely Amens (compare the end of his late F#-minor Mag and Nunc).  Also of note: the sotto voce Gloria mimics the traditional liturgical bow at that point in the canticle.

Exsultet

NOT the 1979 BCP text.  The interpolated “Christ has died / Christ is risen” make it inappropriate in its current Vigil spot but it could be used to good effect AFTER the Easter proclamation.

Te Deum “Grosse Pointe”

Full score & video. The earlier of his two settings starts with brilliant Dirksen fanfares and the traditional plainsong but also contains a sweeping Great Procession for the Apostles, Prophets & Martyrs.  It ends very dark with a Requiem quote and solemn gong.  His 1996 Te Deum “Lexington” is smoothly through-composed and much sunnier.

Surely it is God

The first of the Three Songs of Isaiah, BCP Canticles 9-11. The gentle modal theme lent itself to canonic treatment, but the work unfolds into dramatic eight-part choral fanfares.  Dirksen re-worked the tune into two hymns: Surely it is God who saves me (ISAIAH’S SONG) with the Carl Daw text, and Glory be to God, the Highest (GIBBS HALL), his own paraphrase of the Gloria in Excelsis.

Seek the Lord

The second of the Three Songs of Isaiah is a choral scherzo.  Dirksen omitted the Gloria Patris from these canticles but couldn’t resist adding a characteristic AMEN to this one.

Arise, shine

The first two Songs of Isaiah are a capella.  This one adds the organ with heraldic flourishes for the Great Organ’s Trompette en Chamade.  The phrase lengths in this canticle are Brahmsian in their sweep & length.  He brings back themes from the first two Songs to excellent effect, and the B-major ending is one of his most thrilling.

Communion Service in E minor – Rite I

Score & video.  The Gloria is in my TOP THREE Dirksen pieces.  Less than three minutes long, it opens with a liturgical joke and ends with an explosive Amen.  Note his tempo!

Communion Service in E major – Rite I

Full scores & videos. By 1960 Dirksen had participated in Easter services at the Cathedral for 15 years and knew the forces intimately.  This grand Mass features exceptionally brilliant writing for the brass and timpani, ground-breaking mixed meters (13/8 notoriously raised the choir’s eyebrows), and in the Agnus Dei some of his spookiest writing for the organ.  It’s also noteworthy that two movements of a Mass in E major end on F# (Kyrie, Benedictus).  That uncanny whole-tone lift comes a shock each time but prefigures the Gloria’s triumphant final modal cadence from D to E. He also orchestrated it for double wind quartet after the Stravinsky Mass.

Communion Service in G Major –  Rite I

This speculative work features obbligato handbell parts for 10 bells replicating / mimicking several change ringing methods in each movement as well as a carillon part for the Gloria.

The Annunciation Story

Score & audio.  A liturgical drama with many performance options – Elizabeth’s Song is first-rate.

The Raising of Lazarus

Score & audio. A  mini-cantata, especially suitable for V Lent in Year A. Dirksen deploys all his dramatic skill at Lazare, veni foras.

Wine is a Mocker


The Essex Chamber Singers, 5/19/89
Christ Church of Hamilton / Wenham, Mass.
Mark Dirksen, Director

Pride Goeth Before Destruction


The Essex Chamber Singers, 5/19/89
Christ Church of Hamilton / Wenham, Mass.
Mark Dirksen, Director

The Wicked Flee



from a concert of Canons Ancient and Modern, April 29, 2018
St. Michael the Archangel Episcopal Church, Lexington KY
Richard S. Dirksen, Director

A Soft Answer


The Essex Chamber Singers, 5/19/89
Christ Church of Hamilton / Wenham, Mass.
Mark Dirksen, Director

The Mouth of the Just



from a concert of Canons Ancient and Modern, April 29, 2018
St. Michael the Archangel Episcopal Church, Lexington KY
Richard S. Dirksen, Director

A Froward Man Soweth Strife



from a concert of Canons Ancient and Modern, April 29, 2018
St. Michael the Archangel Episcopal Church, Lexington KY
Richard S. Dirksen, Director

Whoso Curseth His Father



from a concert of Canons Ancient and Modern, April 29, 2018
St. Michael the Archangel Episcopal Church, Lexington KY
Richard S. Dirksen, Director

A Whip for the Horse



The Essex Chamber Singers, 5/19/89
Christ Church of Hamilton / Wenham, Mass.
Mark Dirksen, Director

Chasten Thy Son



from a concert of Canons Ancient and Modern, April 29, 2018
St. Michael the Archangel Episcopal Church, Lexington KY
Richard S. Dirksen, Director

A Gracious Woman



from a concert of Canons Ancient and Modern, April 29, 2018
St. Michael the Archangel Episcopal Church, Lexington KY
Richard S. Dirksen, Director

The Rich Man’s Wealth


The Essex Chamber Singers, 5/19/89
Christ Church of Hamilton / Wenham, Mass.
Mark Dirksen, Director

A Wise Son



from a concert of Canons Ancient and Modern, April 29, 2018
St. Michael the Archangel Episcopal Church, Lexington KY
Richard S. Dirksen, Director

1963 St. Albans Address: ‘And There Was Light’

Delivered before the Governing Board, Faculty, Students and Parents of St. Albans School, November 12, 1963. A meditation on how a Cathedral gathers and reflects light of all kinds and makes an indelible impression on all around, especially the students of the schools. “There is no shade, no hiding place around a Cathedral.”

1964 Biography

Prepared for application for Dean of Oberlin Conservatory.

1990 Choir Reunion Program

The memo to the former choir members about their quiet participation in the Consecration Evensong found Wayne in an elated mood….