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Richard Wayne Dirksen Centenary

Richard Wayne Dirksen Centenary

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timpani

Treasure Chest

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

Psalm 24 – The Earth is the Lord’s

Commissioned by Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church for their 50th Anniversary in 1974.

A Christmas Gloria

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.

Bless the Father 

God of our life

Hear my crying

Cantate Domino

Lamb of God, the Heavens adore thee

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.

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.

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!

Rejoice Ye Pure in Heart

Christ our Passover

Dirksen’s first and perhaps most famous piece premiered as a Gradual at the 11 am service on Easter Day, 1948.  Back in print from Jubilate Music Group!

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.

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 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.

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.

Fafare for Christmas Day

Fanfare & Chorale, Los Angeles

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