Richard Wayne Dirksen Centenary

SATB

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.

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.

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.

Sing Ye Faithful

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

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 plainsong 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.