It’s almost here. After several months of preparations, Music of Praise, Peace, Laughter and Love: A Recital of Original Music by Theodore Jander, is set to go this Sunday, October 21^st.  Below is an early glimpse of the music to be performed on the recital.  You can find out more about most of the music by perusing my website, www.musicrealm.org, or a few earlier posts on this blog.  For those in town, I hope you will be able to attend the recital.  I ask for your prayers for all those involved, that each singer is in healthy voice, that pianists, organists and flutist have limber fingers, and that I remain calm.

Peace to you all!

 

Processional - Jesus Is My Savior in a Round

Thank the Lord

O Thou Who Kindly Dost Provide

Liturgy of Immanuel, the Good Shepherd

            V.         “Offertory”

            VII.       “Agnus Dei”

            VIII.      “Nunc Dimittis”

Jesus Is My Shepherd

Jesus Is My Savior

Jesus Is My Savior for Piano

Reign of the Lord’s Anointed

Awake and Rejoice

What Children Dream

Should I have tea?

As Children Hear

Twilight

Beautiful One

Time flies when you're having fun. The past few months have been quite busy. Upgrading to a new computer has been a wonderful and challenging undertaking due to time spent backing up, reconfiguring, etc. On top of it all, the website on which several of my pieces were available, ThatNewMusicWebsite.com, folded this past May. So, in an effort to make my music available, I’ve taken the leap into self-publication. Many hours have been spent designing and developing a website for this endeavor. Now that everything is completed, I'm proud to announce the official launch of Journey Begun Music. When the chance arises, head on over to www.journeybegunmusic.com and browse around.

This past Sunday, September 23rd, saw the official presentation of "Jesus Is My Savior" at Good Shepherd. The piano setting was played as the offertory in both services while the handbell setting served as the prelude for the second service. I introduced the song to the congregation and then they sang it as the Gathering Song in the early service. The children, who've been learning the first two verses with hand motions the past several weeks, introduced the song at the beginning of second service. All-in-all, the pieces have been extremely well received and were played and sung quite well.

Now that all things technological and business oriented have settled down, I look forward to regularly blogging. And, as you've surely noticed, my blog has changed locations and format for an improved blogging experience. Enjoy!

Program Contributors

$720 was donated separate from the Chipin Website.  Thus, the current donation total is $1580.

~ Anonymous
~ Russ & Shirley Christian
~ Kathryn Crumrine
~ Robert Imholz
~ Louis & Martha Jander
~ Michael Kneemueller
~ Richard Mintzlaff
~ Patricia Nelson
~ Shepherd's Choir
~ Bethany & Jon Schmidt
~ Carol Stewart
~ Shirley Woods

Some exciting news for me, on the professional front, was received at the beginning of June.  Back in the middle of March, I had submitted three works for the 2012 Region VI Conference of the Society of Composers (takes place October 5th through 6th at West Texas A&M University, Canyon, Texas).  Nearly 500 works were submitted.  Sixty-nine total pieces by fifty-nine composers were selected.  Two of my three submissions are part of the sixty-nine chosen.  My art songs, “Beautiful One” and “Twilight” will be performed/premiered on Saturday, October 6th.

Well, so much for the once-a-week updates.  I hadn’t realized that it’d been almost two months since I last updated.  My apologies.  So, here’s what’s been happening.

Holy Week went very well, especially “Last Words from the Cross” on Good Friday.  The Shepherd’s Choir stepped up to the plate and made the music come alive for the service and for the congregation.  For any of you choir members reading this, I give you a great big THANK YOU!!!

“Jesus Is My Shepherd” has been sung during the Kid Friendly Worship at Good Shepherd the past three Sundays.  I had the opportunity to hear it sung by the children and their parents for the first time this past weekend.  Jaime, the Youth and Family Ministry Director, developed actions/sign language to go along with the first verse.  After singing with the group twice, I listened and watched on the third time through.  I’ll be honest.  I choked up just a little bit.  How great it was to hear children singing my music, especially with words sung to God.

“Jesus Is My Savior” is the second song to be completed.  The text was written by my mom and I am truly blessed and honored to have the opportunity to set this and two other texts she’s written for the children’s song project.    An idea for “beefing up” each of the songs came about after the second tune was finished.  Once a song is complete, I will set the music in a variety of idioms to be used within worship.  “Jesus Is My Savior” has already been arranged as a round; as a lead sheet; for handbells and for solo piano.  The final setting will be a fugue.

Needless to say, the direction of this project has taken a rather delightful turn.  I am looking forward to presenting each of the songs in the original version and in the alternate arrangements.

With God’s grace and patience, I will update sooner next time.

God’s Peace!

The past few weeks have been rather fruitful on the music front.  Final touches were put on an impromptu project, compiling/editing/rewriting previous components/settings of Christ’s seven last words into a new compilation/work, "Last Words from the Cross."  Plans for the Good Friday service were ironed out in discussions with Pastor Linda, pastor at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd.  Two major differences from my previous compositions are, I incorporate congregational hymn singing as reflections on a few of the sections and the choir participates in only six of the eleven movements.

The choir has already begun preparing the movements they are singing.  Their openness to trying something new and out-of-the-box (for them) is very reassuring.  “Last Words from the Cross” will be premiered at the Good Friday Service (7 pm) at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd on April 6, 2012.

This past week I began work on one of the planned major projects for the residency, a compilation of songs with a straight forward, Christian message geared towards children.  Pastor Linda challenged me to compose a small handful of “Jesus Loves Me” type songs.  The goal is to merge newly written text with music that will be sung by children and adults alike for years to come.  That being said, the first song is almost complete.  “Jesus is My Shepherd”, text by Kathryn Crumrine, will be a strong first entry for the compilation.  May God guide this endeavor.

That’s all for now.
God’s peace!

Greetings to everyone,

This is my first entry and personalized use of a blog.  Its main purpose is to share with you the goings on of the residency over the course of the next two years (2012-2013).  My hope is to post at least once a week any updates, news worthy items, thoughts, struggles, etc. having to do with this musical endeavor.  God willing, this will be a successful blogging experience.  Enjoy your time catching up.

Peace,
Ted

What is the Lutheran Church Composer-in-Residence Program?
You may be asking yourself, “What is a Lutheran Church Composer-in-Residence?”  Such a position can take on a variety of characteristics.  The goal of this program is to invigorate sacred music and to provide the composer an opportunity to create fresh music for the worship setting.  The composer will collaborate with a single congregation to create new works and arrangements reflecting the Lutheran Church.  Once the music has been premiered for the host congregation, it will become available to other churches and organizations.  This host congregation will be benefited as this position, through publicity, will draw people to visit and inquire about the uniqueness of the residency; enhance the worship experience; and show that the congregation has the desire to build on its reputation of music.  Finally, this distinctive post can be a source of pride for the congregation.