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Richard Wayne Dirksen Centenary

Richard Wayne Dirksen Centenary

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liturgy

A Christmas Gloria

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.

Preces & Responses Rite I – Trebles only

Exsultet

Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in F# minor

Full score & video.

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.

Sanctus & Benedictus in G Major – Rite II

Score & Audio. Liturgical setting, with bells – reworked from the 1966 / Rite I Communion Service in G.

Communion Service in A minor – Rite II – The Canterbury Service

For the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury, 10/14/79.  Three brilliant trumpet parts in the Gloria.

Communion Service in C minor – Rite II

Score & audio.  A two-part setting.

Good Friday Antiphon & Hymn

A Christmas Service

A Thanksgiving for Light

Dirksen’s Bernstein phase.

A Celebration of the Transfiguration

Score & audio. This material has many components in various styles and can be used in many different forms.

The Ballad of the Transfiguration

Once sung. never forgotten.

Palm Sunday Liturgy

Three versicles and responses to open the Palm Sunday liturgy.

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