by Kile Smith | Jan 24, 2018 | Broad Street Review
[First published 23 Jan 2018 as “Life is a dream” by the Broad Street Review and reprinted by permission.] The two lanes merged as I slipped past the slower car to my right. Two other cars ducked in behind me. We were approaching a one-lane bridge, thin and high. The...
by Kile Smith | Jan 19, 2018 | church music
I’m now a contributor to the Augsburg Fortress Prelude Music Planner blog; my first effort is up now, about the writing of my (now 10-yr-old!) Vespers, how Epiphany and Lutheran chorales are behind it all, and how Bach eventually taught me a thing or two in...
by Kile Smith | Jan 2, 2018 | Fleisher Collection, Radio, WRTI
In the cold of the new year, warm up to Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection and the music of the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas on Saturday, January 6th, 5 to 6 pm. The music of Silvestre Revueltas is infused with the sounds of Mexico, whether actual or...
by Kile Smith | Dec 20, 2017 | Choral music, church music, liturgical music, new music
With an Alleluia and an Agnus Dei written in the last two weeks, I’ve now completed a chant-based Mass for our Christmas Eve service. It began in 2001 with the Sanctus; we added the Gloria in 2006. I re-used the Sanctus for Easter 2005: It is an interpolation between...
by Kile Smith | Dec 20, 2017 | Broad Street Review
First published in Broad Street Review 19 Dec 2017 as “Where N. Broad Meets the North Pole.” Beneath the railroad bridge that spans Broad Street just north of Glenwood, I was waiting for a Christmas tree, and so, I was waiting for Christmas, since Christmas doesn’t...
by Kile Smith | Dec 19, 2017 | Choral music, new music
I know a German who does not drink beer. I have heard there are others, but he is the only one I know. I have never heard, however, of Germans who do not sing toasts. Even the German I know who does not drink beer, sings toasts, when others are drinking beer....
by Kile Smith | Dec 16, 2017 | Baroque music, Choral music, new music, Orchestral Music, Vocal music
Vespers selections: (1) Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, (7) Psalm 113, (10) Magnificat, (13) Deo gratias. Re-orchestrated for the instrumentation of the J. S. Bach Cantata No. 1, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern: 2 Oboes da caccia, 2 Horns, Organ, Strings....
