Northern Spire

About All You Need:

    

All You Need (2007) is a festive choral anthem that could be used for any number of occasions.  The text is based upon Matthew 6:25-33, a portion of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in which he encourages his disciples to trust that God will provide for their need, just as he provides for the needs of the birds of the air and the grass of the field.  This piece was inspired by a homily given around 2006-2007 at St. Peter's Church in Saratoga Springs, NY, where I serve as Music Director, by our then-parochial-vicar Fr. Michael Cambi, in which he quoted this passage as a way of encouraging parishioners to give their anxieties to God.  The oft-quoted passage itself was familiar to me, but the homily made it stick with me in a way that it had not previously, and I set about composing this anthem.  At the time of the premiere, I had only written out the choral parts and played the accompaniment from memory, so I have only recently completed fleshing out the full score.  I hope that this recent renovation will help to give this piece new life!

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The choral parts for this piece are somewhat easily learned by a decent volunteer choir in rehearsal, with the score containing some repeated passages, and alternating among two-, three-, and four-part writing, some without accompaniment.  There is also a divisi descant in the Soprano part in the final statement of the refrain, suited to the more confident high voices in the choir, and optional high and low ending notes for sopranos and basses, respectively.  All of this makes for a satisfying choral experience for volunteer singers, and a great sense of accomplishment at the performance.

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Click on the title page image above to view sample pages from the score.

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While I do not have a live human recording of this piece, I have included a MIDI audio rendering of the score to give you a sense of the piece.  As always, bear in mind that electronic choral samples are unable to interpret lyric texts, so you will not hear any of the text of the piece, only "ah's".  You can view the text in the perusal score above.