(picture) Dave Barrett
I dedicate this Psalm Offering to Fr. Dave Barrett. I have known Dave since the Fall of 2010 when he joined the staff of St. Wenceslaus as an associate pastor, initially serving at St. Scholastica in Heidelberg, and St. Thomas, St. Thomas. When St. Wenceslaus was merged with 4 rural parishes, Dave, while celebrating Mass at St. Wenceslaus from time to time, has concentrated his ministry principally at St. Scholastica, Heidelberg and St John the Evangelist in Union Hill. Dave embodies the meaning of priest as servant. Over time, many of us who serve in parish life minister out of our own brokenness. It is out of our own brokenness that we are able to minister all the more authentically and effectively to those God has called us to serve. Dave has had his crosses and brokenness in life, yet his love of God, the people of God, and the Church has sustained him through many trials. He is a good, compassionate friend, and an excellent priest. To serve alongside him is a tremendous blessing and privilege.
About this music. There was a time that I experimented in composing through-composed hymnody e.g. “Holy God We Praise Thy Name,” or “O God Our Help In Ages Past.” The melody of this Psalm Offering is taken from one such past attempt of mine. I have reset this hymn tune in a musical form for piano called “Variations on a Theme.” Essentially, a melody is stated in the beginning and then the rest of the music is multiple variations on that melody. This is an old form of composition. It exists in a way in some of the old Mass settings of the Renaissance where a popular song of the time, “L’homme armé” (present in 40 known Mass settings) was used as a cantus firmus, over which the composer would compose new music. Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Contemporary composers have all used this musical form over the past several hundred years. Mozart once wrote variations on the children’s song, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Some of the more famous variations have been, Beethoven’s “Eroica Variations,” Brahms, “Variations On A Theme by Handel”, and Mendelssohn‘s Variations Sérieuses. I performed the Mendelssohn Variations at my graduation recital in college.
In this Psalm Offering the melody is introduced in the key of D major. The first variation of the melody is in triplet form with the melody running from the lower register of the piano to the middle register, then to the upper register and then progresses gradually back to the lower register. The second variation is the harmonic rhythm of the melody in running 16th note arpeggios. The third variation modulates to B minor, the relative minor of D major. The lower register uses a technique of accompaniment used greatly in the Classical Period known as the “Alberti Bass”, a broken triad (3 pitch chord) played in either 8th notes or 16th notes underneath the melody. The fourth variation modulates to B major with an embellished melody stated in the lower register of the piano while a counter-melody in chords is suspended over the melody in the upper register. The fifth variation modulates back to D major, as the melody is presented in dotted rhythm in the higher register at the same time there are block chords in the lower register supporting the melody. The sixth and final variation continues in the key of D major and is presented in parallel 16th note runs in both the upper and middle registers of the piano, occasionally punctuated by the dotted rhythm of the fifth variation.
One interesting thing occurred as I was listening to the playback on the second variation. I noticed that the harmonic rhythm of the melody resembles the same harmonic rhythm for an old Peter, Paul, and Mary song entitled, “Puff the Magic Dragon.” I swear that by the time I composed this melody, I was no longer smoking special cigarettes from the land of Honalee. The harmonic rhythm is purely a coincidence.
