The music for this Communion Service started out as a piano piece.
I’m not overly familiar with the words of the Mass, which perhaps is an advantage for me in creating something new. But how is a Baptist like me familiar with it at all?
Partly it’s my knowledge of western classical music. But I also have a little practical experience: I used to play piano once a month in a church that sang an English congregational version of the Mass. And then there’s my uncle Gary, who served as an Anglican priest. I have fond memories of watching him conduct services at various small churches – he always made the text and the ceremony come alive, his enthusiastic and candid manner helping everyone to feel involved.
After Gary died in 2021, my Aunty Robyn commissioned me to compose something to remember him by. The result was my Piano Sonata No.2: Portrait of Gary Priest (you can hear it on Portraits: Volume I). One of the perspectives of Gary I wanted to include was ‘At Church’, and for this movement I simply put the English words of the entire ‘Ordinary’ to a tune, and turned it into a piano solo.
Here are a few bars from the piano sonata to show you what I mean. Below the melody, I’ve written in the words I had in mind when composing it.
I’m not overly familiar with the words of the Mass, which perhaps is an advantage for me in creating something new. But how is a Baptist like me familiar with it at all?
Partly it’s my knowledge of western classical music. But I also have a little practical experience: I used to play piano once a month in a church that sang an English congregational version of the Mass. And then there’s my uncle Gary, who served as an Anglican priest. I have fond memories of watching him conduct services at various small churches – he always made the text and the ceremony come alive, his enthusiastic and candid manner helping everyone to feel involved.
After Gary died in 2021, my Aunty Robyn commissioned me to compose something to remember him by. The result was my Piano Sonata No.2: Portrait of Gary Priest (you can hear it on Portraits: Volume I). One of the perspectives of Gary I wanted to include was ‘At Church’, and for this movement I simply put the English words of the entire ‘Ordinary’ to a tune, and turned it into a piano solo.
Here are a few bars from the piano sonata to show you what I mean. Below the melody, I’ve written in the words I had in mind when composing it.
(I’ve come across a few other composers who’ve also used this method of ‘silently’ setting a text in an instrumental piece. It’s like using some ready-made scaffolding when building a new work, which makes the blank page feel a little less daunting!)
It was always my intention to one day turn this into a singable liturgical version. And now I have the perfect opportunity!
But… it’s not going to be as easy as I thought.
I’ve found out that Christ Church North Adelaide would like an older version of the English text, corresponding with the 1662 Book of Common Prayer which they use in their worship. The text I had ‘set’ in my piano piece was a newer ‘Common Worship’ version, and although the words are only subtly different, most of the rhythms just won’t work for the older text…
It was always my intention to one day turn this into a singable liturgical version. And now I have the perfect opportunity!
But… it’s not going to be as easy as I thought.
I’ve found out that Christ Church North Adelaide would like an older version of the English text, corresponding with the 1662 Book of Common Prayer which they use in their worship. The text I had ‘set’ in my piano piece was a newer ‘Common Worship’ version, and although the words are only subtly different, most of the rhythms just won’t work for the older text…
I still want to use the musical material from the piano sonata, but I can see that I’m going to have to change things fairly substantially…
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