10-4-2017: Richard added a reading of Alex's poem.
1st Verse:
I've seen good and bad
Now I question myself should I be mad?...
At a world where light wants to shine in our lives
No more fights this time I want to embrace what is right...
Even though pain cannot be avoided
I want to see the same light everywhere which I see in the lord-and...
I don't know why we fear death...
Please see this blog article to see how this collaboration with Asiansa09 evolved: topcatholicsongs.com/enchristment
Initially, I had imagined this song would be slow and meditative. But the Spirit made me go uptempo! Tell me what you think. Record the song and send it to me! A lead sheet with guitar chords is attached to the end of this story. Thanks, Dan (Asiansa09), for the inspiration.
5/12/17: I uploaded a revised audio demo in which I did voice pitch correction and also corrected mistakes I had made in singing the melody in verses 2 and 3.
7/20/2017: I uploaded a piano + voice score (notated sheet music) which can be downloaded free as a PDF file. See download links at end of story. Huge thanks to my music colleague André van Haren for preparing this arrangement!
9/28/2017: See the Sibelius score player below. A brand new feature of Sibelius 8.7. Thanks to André van Haren for sending me the embed code for his Sibelius engraving. Please comment below if you have questions about Sibelius or scoring/engraving in general. This song has been submitted to OCP Music for consideration.
Enchristment
CHORUS
On my knees, I humbly pray.
I love to feel your radiance.
My heart is one with you, O Lord,
in this moment of Enchristment.
VERSE 1
My God, my Christ, you are in my heart.
I praise you, I worship you.
Your presence in this holy place
makes me want to be with you
forevermore.
VERSE 2
My God, my Christ, you are in my mind.
I pray, with Mary, for chastity.
I pray for us to receive your...
NOTE: We submitted this song to Oregon Catholic Press (ocp.org) but it was not accepted.
Our World So Beautiful is a new Christmas song co-written by Dan vi Nguyen, Richard Schletty and André van Haren. Dan posted her lyrics here and asked if anyone could make a song out of her words. Richard Schletty rewrote the lyrics to give them a consistent rhyme, line length, metrical pattern and overall poetic structure. Then Richard came up with a melody. Next, André van Haren wrote a beautiful piano arrangement based on an a cappella recording of the melody by Richard. Using Sibelius, André engraved the sheet music not only for piano and voice, but developed the song fully by adding guitar chords and two additional instruments: flute and cello. He also engraved a version of the song with optional SATB harmonies in the refrain...