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New Pageant : Introductory, Book 1A

New Recital Pageants, Book 1

New Recital Pageants, Book 2

New Recital Pageants, Book 4

New Recital Pageants, Book 3

Carol of the New Prince

Little Boy Blue

This setting of the Mother Goose nursery rhyme is a lullaby disguised as a ballad. The scoring is for mixed chorus and jazz trio, but it could be performed with just a piano (probably best with three hands). Primarily in four parts, the tight harmonies and relaxed rhythms make for a cool but passionate presentation. The text allows for introspection on the stages of life that can provoke a thoughtful response from singers and listeners alike. Duration: 3:15

New Pageants for Piano: Introductory Pageant Bk. 1

Three Bolts Out of the Blue

Verbum caro factum est

This little Christmas motet, the Responsory to the eighth Lesson of Second Vespers on Christmas, was composed in honor of the Rev. Dr. Vahe Simonian who, toward the end of his illustrious career, served as Interim Pastor at Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church, where the composer was Music Director. A setting of John 1:14 sung in Latin, it is through composed in the Renaissance manner, with each new phrase of text being ushered-in by a new musical idea. Duration: 3:00

Four Impressions

I composed Four Impressions for the American cellist, Terry King, currently on the faculty of the Longy School of Music in Boston. The piece was originally titled Green Lake: Four Impressions, after the Green Lake Music Festival in Wisconsin, where Terry performed the work in July 1988. A longtime supporter of new music, Terry was for many years a member of the Mirecourt Trio, in residence at Grinnell College in Iowa. He and his colleagues, Kenneth Goldsmith, violin, and John Jensen, piano, commissioned a great deal of new music for piano trio, including my Elegy and Exaltation (1982), which they frequently performed and also recorded. Without question, Terry and hiscolleagues played a major part in my early development as a composer.

Dusk : From I Will Sing To The Stars

Written for the Jacksonville Children's Chorus, this SSAA setting of a Sara Teasdale text begins in unison. This verse structure is followed by a refrain and a canon between the two voices on the text, "the air is blue and sweet." The contrasting middle section allows the voices to become the focal point on the text, "let me sing like birds, sing before night." The third movement of the three-movement work, "I Will Sing to the Stars." Duration 3:40

In the Bleak Midwinter Earth Stood Hard as Iron

The original tune is set in F major using traditional harmony. The suspensions are set at words which reveal tension to be resolved, which I have not always done. The tonal structure is of a modified strophic design (A-[A]-B-A) in five verses.The textual structure is curious and even novel for that era. The A-(A)-B section of each verse makes "mixed" use of the words. Yet, the ends of the last "A" sections contain only three words or three syllables.Thus, "give my heart" sounds strangely empty on first hearing. However, it makes the structural beat pattern consistent. Yes, the rhyme scheme is A-B-C-B-D-E-F-E. Also, I have purposefully used all five originalverses so as to obtain full, glorious, Christmas storytelling!What gift can I give to the Christ Child? If the midwinter snow fully covers up all my transgressions, only to have them revealed again in spring, then I will give The Christ Child my contrite heart to balance the wager of my soul! -James McCulloughDuration: 4:30

Shady Groove : and other Songs from the Appalachian Mountains

This set of short pieces for piano solo is based on folksongs from the Appalachian Mountains. This music originated in the British Isles as unaccompanied ballads. The tunes were brought to the United States. As time passed, instruments were added zither, banjo and, eventually, guitar. The guitar versions have become well-known “standards” of the American folk repertoire. Common traits of these songs are the modal/diatonic harmonies. The “refinement” of European chromaticism is absent. Rootposition chords and consonant sonorities are prevalent. A special challenge in creating piano arrangements has been to inject occasional “appropriate” dissonances to enliven the harmonies. In addition, the strophic, ballad style of the songs, whichrelies upon storytelling to maintain the dramatic interest, must now be replaced by musical variation and development. The intent has been to create new piano repertoire within the “folk spirit” rough hewn, straightforward, energetic and beautiful.Shady Grove is a popular 18th-century American folksong with many versions of the lyrics. The title may refer to a beloved woman, or to a place where the speaker is traveling. [“Going to Shade Grove...”] However, the energetic music itself iswell-defined, and memorable. This new interpretation for piano includes a slowly-unfolding introduction before the arrival of the theme, and a contrasting, ascending interlude section. The third verse is presented in a slow, rhapsodic manner, toallow time for reflection. The lively theme then returns, ending with strumming the strings inside the piano, in Appalachian zither-playing style.

Mornings of Creation

Mornings of Creation is a five-movement suite for piano trio. This music was created during the composers customary composing hours—the morning. Thus, the message is one of the freshness of a new day, and the energy of creative impulse."First Notes" opens with light patterns in the strings, as bird calls. Initially presented individually, the calls join together as a precursor to the main theme of the movement, presented by cello and then violin. A middle section in the minor modefeatures tremoli in the piano. This is a restless, energetic section which leads to the return of the theme. The movement ends with the cello and violin intertwined, while the piano plays bird calls above.

In Whom All Things from Two Pickthall Songs

The second piece of "Two Pickthall Songs' suggests that whatever is in our hearts may remain there so that we are never truly parted. The music has three main sections which correspond to the three main images of the poem: “Love, in whom all things are-” “Love, in whom all things nest-” and “Love, in whom all things hide.” The main melodic idea is sustained while the harmonies meander. This is to represent the notion that events in life can be unexpected- things change, and we must forge a new path. The opening line of the text, “Love, in whom all things are,” is repeated to act as a “cleansing” phrase to end the piece, and to return us to the idea that we can find love andcompassion in everything. All we have to do is to look. Duration: 2:30

O Tell Me Where the Dove Has Flown

This haunting folk tune is classified as Type I, which are hymns sung to settings of traditional ballad tunes. This classification was devised by Phillips Barry (1880-1937), who was a pioneering Early American folk hymn specialist and folk tune collector.The tune has many variants. However, chief among them are the traditional Scottish ballads called Lizie Wan, the (Frances James) Child ballad No. 51 and the Child ballad No. 112, The Baffled Knight.Brewer, Maine, was the first New England town where this particular variant was first notated by Phillips Barry. Nevertheless, similar variants were also collected in Vermont and Massachusetts much later by otherfolk tune collectors.The intoxicating full melody of O Tell Me Where the Dove Has Flown is in the Dorian mode. It is repeated five times in this edition, making the design of the entire work strophic in structure. The verse melody in five phrases was first harmonized in 1937 by Annabelle Morris Buchanan (1889-1983). She was another pioneering shape-note specialist who wrote the trailblazing book titled Folk Hymns Of America (J. Fisher & Bro., 1938).Specialists in the art of folk tune arrangements will herein notice that I have been greatly influenced by the classic folk song settings of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).The text authorship of the verses is unknown, rendering them as a traditional text. In this setting I have used five of the surviving six ABAB rhymed verses.The complete (slightly altered) text with a different tune is also found in William Walker's The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion (1854 edition), under the title Dove of Peace.This work was first performed in 1965 by the Boston University Marsh Chapel Choir conducted by Dr. Max Miller in a worship service.I hope you enjoy this pensive, yet invigorating secular tune used in a sacred form. -James McCullough (2014)