Matthew begins with a piece of William Selby (1738-1798), a British-born composer who emigrated to Boston in 1771 […can you imagine living in Boston at that time…?] where he held forth at the King’s Chapel and at Trinity Church, Copley Square. His musical life was extremely active – including many concerts of secular music as well as the church work…

Alice Parker’s arrangement of ‘I will Arise’ fits each voice part like a tailored glove – especially the tenor line: listen as our guys [and gal – we are graced with one very fine lady tenor…] gracefully soar up to the meat of the range. Now in her 80’s, Alice lives on a farm in western Massachusetts and on the Upper West Side of Manhattan [she raised five children there - as a single, self-employed composer and arranger…(!)] – and from both places constantly reminds us all to pare away the fluff and the excess and the nonsense from our songs and our singing and to zero in on the essence of Melody [with a capital ‘M’]. In her new book, ‘The Anatomy of Melody,’ she gives voice to this, her careers’ work – the giving of life to the unadorned song…

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989), native of Kansas City and a Pulitzer Prize winner [for a film score – ‘Louisiana Story’] was one of a core of people [Bernstein and Rorem and Copland, etc….] who forged what can be called the ‘20th Century American Classical Music Sound.’ This arrangement of a well-known ‘white Spiritual’ is characteristically sparse and telling; notice how the verses get slower, like a child settling into the arms of care…

For his doting, imperious care of the mid-20th century new music scene in New York City – Thomson was at the center of creative, financial and critical literary circles – and his natural, refined and effete sensibilities, writer Ned Rorem refers to he and Aaron Copland, cheekily but accurately, as, respectively, the ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ of American Music…

Sir George (Albert) Shearing (b. 1919), famed pop/jazz pianist and composer, also an émigré from England, is justly world famous. Blind from birth, he developed new directions in Jazz – notably the ‘locked hands’ style of thick, parallel motion chords – and wrote many, many unforgettable tunes. My favorite is ‘Lullaby of Birdland.’ He became a U.S. citizen in 1956. In June, 2007, he was Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for ‘distinguished service to music…’

Thomas Conroy, a graduate of the University of Houston, wrote the ‘12-fold Amen’ on commission from St. Philip – for just this application…

-Keith Weber