MY MUSIC

 

Ever since I started studying music at age four, I’ve composed and arranged pieces for piano, voice, chorus, band and other performance groups. During my long career as a music critic, however, it was hard to promote my compositions because of conflict-of-interest issues (I couldn’t write about groups/conductors who programmed my music). Now I’m free to do this, and this new website will give you a chance to hear more recent work. Most of it is choral, and some of it is published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing .


HOW TO ACQUIRE MY MUSIC:

Check out the available works (below), several of them with audio links. If you like what you see and hear, please email me: mbargreen@gmail.com. I will license you to print a given number of copies from an emailed PDF file for $1 a copy.


CHORAL CONDUCTORS: To see scores, please contact Melinda at mbargreen@gmail.com.

Some recent works:


  1. Bullet“We Were Not Made for Silence” (SSATBB a cappella): Premiered in 2021 by Dr. Robert Bode and Seattle’s excellent Choral Arts Northwest, this 4-minute piece is a setting of the composer’s poem about the temporary silencing of choruses in the wake of the Covid pandemic. Published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing (www.sbmp.com).


  1. Bullet“O Lord, Make Thy Servant Elizabeth Our Queen” (SSATBB a cappella): Commissioned and premiered by the Golden Bridge Chorus under the direction of English choral expert Suzi Digby (September, 2019), this is a 21st-century reimagining of a great Renaissance masterpiece by William Byrd.


  1. Bullet“The Color of Gold” (SATB a cappella, some divisi): A three-minute setting of an original lyric about the permanence of gold through the eons, and a segue into the speaker’s beloved: “You too are gold ...”. Beautiful close harmonies and inner voices.


  1. Bullet“Three Yeats Songs” (SATB a cappella): A total of about six minutes all together, these settings of beloved short poems by William Butler Yeats offer plenty of variety in tone and style. The poems are “To an Isle in the Water,” “A Deep-Sworn Vow,” and “A Drinking Song.” Short and eminently singable.


  1. Bullet“We Wonder at the Winter Night” (SSATBB a cappella): Written to an original text by the composer, this six-minute piece reflects on the sense of wonder er feel while walking under a clear winter sky full of stars: “They are here with us,/They were here with our ancestors;/They will be here with our children.” Lyrical, beautiful close harmony; challenging but worth it.


  1. Bullet“Night” (SSATBB a cappella): Commissioned and premiered by Seattle’s excellent Choral Arts Northwest (Robert Bode, conductor), this five-minute piece was composed on a prize-winning poem by student writer Jillian Shelver. With word painting and soaring melodic lines, this work requires a virtuoso chorus. Hear the premiere performance on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/choral-arts/night


  1. Bullet“Stella Splendens” (SSATBB a cappella). A richly textured and contemplative Latin piece from the medieval Spanish songs of pilgrimage, collected in the Llibre Vermell. The title translates “O Splendid Star.” One of three winners of Sorel Medallion competition, 2013, and performed by Voices of Ascension, Dennis Keene conducting.   Click on the following ink to listen:   Stella Splendens_Dean edit, 01142017dd.mp3


  1. Bullet“Silver Night” (SSATTB a cappella). Recorded by Cathedral Choral Society of Washington, D.C., J. Reilly Lewis, director.  Click on this link: Silver Night.mp3 to listen. The 2013 arrangement of this piece for male chorus, oboe, and piano was premiered by the Seattle Men’s Chorus, Dennis Coleman, conductor.


  1. Bullet“The Gordon Magnificat” (SSA/piano). Taken on international tour by the eminent conductor Nancy Menk. Recorded here by Gordon College Women’s Choir, Faith Lueth, director. Click here to listen.


  1. Bullet “Ghosts,” composed to an original poem by Joan LaBombard (SATB/piano). Recorded by Quintessence (of Albuquerque, New Mexico), Michael Cooke, director. Published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing.  Click here to listen.livepage.apple.com


  1. Bullet“Big Easy On My Mind,” a fundraising choral piece which has earned several thousand dollars for New Orleans cultural organizations in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (SATB/piano). Recorded by the University of Delaware Chorale, Paul Head, director. Click the following link: Big Easy On My Mind.mp3 -- to listen. Published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing.


  1. Bullet“In Memory” (In Memoriam Otto Lang) (SATB a cappella).


  1. Bullet“There Is No Rose” (SATB a cappella). Recorded by Stetson University Choir, Duncan Couch, director. Published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing. Click here to listen.


  1. Bullet“The Faith Carols,” two original Christmas songs and two carol arrangements (SSAA/piano). Recorded by Gordon College Women’s Choir, Faith Lueth, director.


  1. Bullet“The Lamb” and “The Tyger,” William Blake texts (SATB a cappella). Click on the following link to hear:  04 The Lamb.m4a -- recorded by Pacific Chorale (Costa Mesa, California), John Alexander, director. Published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing.


  1. Bullet“Camptown Races,” arrangement (SATB a cappella). You can hear a computer generated recording on the Santa Barbara Music Publishing website, www.sbmp.com.


  1. Bullet-- Arrangements of “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “Be Thou My Vision,” and “Be Still, My Soul” (SSAA/piano), “My Jesus, I Love Thee” (SSA/piano); recorded by Gordon College Women’s Choir, Faith Lueth, director.