Journeying Into Mystery

A photograph of myself, my sister, Mary Ruth, and my mother, about one year before Mary Ruth’s death.

I wrote this Psalm Offering for my sister, Mary Ruth, in 1988, 11 years before her death from Chrones Disease. I thought for some time that I had lost this music I had composed for her as a birthday present. Fortunately, I had made a rudimentary recording of the music and was prepared to reconstruct the entire score from that recording, a painstakingly slow process of listening, writing, listening and writing. It is a short piece of music, just 3 pages in length. I was surprised and greatly delighted to find in a bin of music, the first and third page of her music. Though I still had to listen to the recording to reconstruct the missing middle page, I was greatly relieved to have finally had her music back in entirety.

About the music:  It is written very simply, in two part, AB form. It is in the key of F major. For some reason F major has a sonority that does not resemble any other key. There is a deep richness to that key that I have used in only 3 Psalm Offerings; Psalm Offering 6, Opus 1 (for Ruthie), this Psalm Offering, and the one that will be following this, Psalm Offering 4, Opus 4 (for David Waite).

Psalm Offering 2 Opus 4 was written for Eleanor Campbell (seen in the photograph posing with my little sister, Mary Ruth). Eleanor was a very dear family friend, who, though not related to my family by blood, was nonetheless the closest person we had as an Aunt. With all our relatives living either in Pennsylvania or Virginia, we rarely had the opportunity to be with them. Our understanding of family was greatly extended to include many of our closest friends. Eleanor was such an extraordinary person, and a very classy woman.

About the music: As a student of music I had the wonderful experience of being inundated into all kinds of music. One French composer that had an impression on me was Olivier Messiaen. Messiaen wrote a considerable amount of music. Messiaen was also an avid lover of nature and an orthinologist (study of birds). He would go about the countryside notating onto staff the bird song of all the different species of birds. He would then work that bird call into his music compositions. I remember when Dr. Callahan played an organ piece written by Messiaen for us in class. I was incredibly struck by how the bird call worked within the music. Messiaen was not the first composer to this. Beethoven had been at it, particularly in the second movement of his 6th symphony. If you listen closely, Beethoven replicates the bird song of the nightingale (flute), quail (oboe), and cuckoo (2 clarinets) into the score. Eleanor was a great lover of nature. Following the example of these two great composers, I worked into this piano piece the bird song from around my home.

Picture: My mother as a Freshman at Mount Mercy College, Pittsburgh, PA.

 

 

 

 

 

My mother at the age of 10 year, in her butterfly costume. In the play in which she wore the costume, she accidentally knocked down part of the scenery with her wings.

Psalm Offering 1 Opus 4 was composed for my mother around the year 1988. My mother had a fascination for all things Japanese. A lot of Japanese art hung on the walls of her home. I composed this as a birthday present for her that year. The melody is made up out of the pentatonic scale, 5 pitches, largely associated with Asian music. Think of the melody being played only on the black keys of the piano. It was written in the key of Gb major. The melody segues to G major, and then ends enharmonically in F# major, (Gb major only with sharps). I had thought I had lost this music, but in going through a bin full of musical sketches and other bits and pieces I have composed over the years, I found this Psalm Offering in its entirety. I am so grateful it has seen the light of day once more!

My graduation picture in 1974, the same year I composed this Psalm Offering.

As I appear today.

 

 

 

 

NOTES: Psalm Offering 8 was principally written for myself. It was not done with narcissistic intent or malice. Rather, I had written all this other music for others, I wanted one specific song I could call my own. I was soaking in musical influences from the Baroque Period to the Modern Period of music. I learned as much as I could from composers like Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Listz, Mendelssohn, Debussy, Ravel and so on. One composer that struck my fancy was the 20th century German composer Paul Hindemith. He did not follow strictly the atonal school of composition that Schoenberg and others like Schoenberg had established. Rather he dipped into all the musical influences from the past and present to establish his own style. Dissonance was as much at home in his music as consonance. His piano suite Ludus Tonalis, was a particular favorite of mine. It was in the style of Hindemith in which I wrote this Psalm Offering. I would compose more in this style, particularly Psalm Offering 1 Opus 2. While I played this at home, as I developed more and more into a liturgical musician, I began to use this short little piece of music as a prelude to Mass or at post-communion. It remains for me today, one of my favorite compositions for piano.

THE MUSIC: This Psalm Offering is in simple three part, ABA, form. Melody A is introduced, repeated then segues into melody B. There is a recapitulation of melody A to the Coda.

NOTES: This Psalm Offering was written in 1974 and dedicated to Pope John XXIII. I remember distinctly as a kid, the opening of the Second Vatican Council. While I experienced the transition from serving Mass in Latin to serving Mass in English, I didn’t fully appreciate the tremendous contribution Pope John XXIII made to the Church by convening the Council. Why did I pick a Fugue to compose for this Psalm Offering? How could such an old form of music from the Baroque Period represent such a dynamic man? This Fugue has a dynamic quality to it that truly characterizes the life of Pope John XIII. There is a relentless power in a Fugue. The subject of the Fugue, a short melody, gets introduced and repeated over and over in different key areas both major and minor, sometimes inverted, sometimes backward (called retrograde), sometimes slowed down (augmented) and sometimes sped up (diminished). Just as the subject of a Fugue dominates the music and continues through to the end of the Fugue, so the work begun by Pope John XXIII has not ended but continues to be implemented in spite of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. It is with great relief and satisfaction that Pope Francis I is continuing to undo the harm done by the previous two Popes, and completing the implementation of the Second Vatican Council. The principle pitches from this Fugue subject I would take 12 years later and fashion a new melody dedicated to Archbishop Oscar Romero (Psalm Offering 6 Opus 2), an equally dynamic and inspiring man. The next time I would write a Fugue would be to celebrate the 12th anniversary of my marriage to Ruth (Psalm Offering 9 Opus 2).

THE MUSIC: This is a three part Fugue (three voices). Unlike most of the homophonic music of today (that is, a melody supported by chords), a Fugue is polyphonic music, that is the juxtaposition of melody upon melody upon melody. The interaction of these melodies with each other provides the harmonies. The Fugue begins with the Fugue subject introduced in the key of C minor. The subject gets passed off to the second voice in a different key, and then to the third voice in another key area. A musical bridge of short elements from the subject link the different incarnations of the fugue subject throughout the Fugue, with the subject changing from minor to major keys, the subject getting inverted (turned upside down), or being slowed down (augumented) or sped up (diminished) or played backward (retrograde). This basic structure, fugue subject, musical bridge, fugue subject, musical bridge is the form of the music, until there is a final coda, or conclusion. This Fugue beings in the key area of C minor and ends in the Coda with a resounding fortissississimo (fff) on the pitch of C in the three lowest octaves on the piano.

(photograph – Ruthie’s graduation photograph)

 

 

 

 

 

(photo of Ruth when this Psalm Offering was composed for her.)

 

 

 

NOTES: Psalm Offering 6 was composed in 1970 as an assignment for Music Theory 1 in college. The assignment was to compose music in the form of an Etude, etudes being basically a music exercise for the hands. Some of the more famous Etudes were written by Frederick Chopin, most people having heard the #12 Etude, also known as the “Revolutionary” Etude. What I handed in was the first 20 measures. I remember I knew the intention of my Etude was arpeggio exercises for the right hand. I worked out the chord progression (harmonic rhythm for the musically astute) but could not think of a melody to go along with the arpeggios in the right hand. I went to bed and in the middle of the night, the melody came to me in a dream. I awakened and quickly wrote down the melody I heard in the dream. After it was graded I knew that I wanted to compose it as a present for Ruth. From the time I was a Junior in high school, I was in love with this beautiful girl, Ruth Ahmann. Ruthie and I dated steadily since May of 1969. I had my whole life planned, and the biggest part of that plan was to marry Ruth. I took my Etude assignment and expanded the original 20 measures and gave it to Ruth. As you know, the biggest part of plan was realized and Ruthie and I were married in 1974. I revisited this Psalm Offering in 1985, altering the middle section slightly. When Ruthie heard this Psalm Offering today, she thought it was brand new. I guess a few years have gone by since she last heard it in 1970. One thing has not changed over the years. My life still revolves around that beautiful brunette haired girl with the most magnificent smile.

THE MUSIC: This Psalm Offering is in simple 4 part,AABA, form. Melody A is introduced in the left hand, while the right hand accompanies the melody with ascending and descending arpeggios and then restated. The melody segues into melody B, with arpeggios in the left hand and melody in the right. It segues back into melody A for the grand finale.

My little sister, Mary Ruth at the age of 3 years.

Mary Ruth at the age of 18 years, 1973, the year that I wrote this music for her.

NOTES: This Psalm Offering is dedicated to my sister, Mary Ruth Wagner. I wrote this in 1973, when I was a Junior at the College of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. Mary had just graduated from Our Lady of Peace, and, sadly, was the last graduating class from that all girl Catholic High School (so it was not just teenage angst that produced such a wonderful demeanor in the picture above). It was about this time in her life that Crohn’s disease, the illness which afflicted her from this time forward and would eventually end her life, began to affect her health in a major way. At the time, internal medicine was just discovering what Crohn’s disease was, and Mary was treated for other illnesses before her doctors finally made the correct diagnosis. Mary would live another 24 years, go on to become an Occupational Therapist, graduating from the College of St. Catherine, and obtaining a Graduated Degree in Education from the University of St. Thomas. Between 1973 and her death in 1997, Mary had close to 30 surgeries, all Crohn’s Disease related. The doctors were finally unable to stop her internal bleeding and she passed away on August 10, 1997. In her 42 years of life, Mary squeezed a lot of living, traveling to Europe, Australia, Tahiti, Hawaii, and, even at her sickest, camped in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. She was fortunate that two of her classmates from Our Lady of Peace, became medical doctors, and they often accompanied her on her journeys abroad. Mary has been dead for 18 1/2 years, and not a day passes without me thinking of her.

THE MUSIC: As stated above, I wrote this as a music major in the year of 1973. It is a waltz in the key of G minor. While it has a vibrant tempo and the swirly feeling of three that accompanies waltzes, there is a tinge of melancholy in the music. It is in simple three part, ABA, form. Melody A is introduced, leading into melody B. A bridge comprising elements of melody A and trills leads to a restatement of melody B, before it segues back to A, as it gets slower and softer to the end of the music. In re-editing this music in 2016, with the exception of adding dotted rhythm in a few places, I did little to change this music. It is just a little waltz in a minor key area. Little did I know at the time of composition, it would be a musical reflection of my sister’s life, that is, short, adventuresome, and filled with both a lot of pain and a lot of love.

 

 (painting – “The Flagellation of Jesus”, Reubens)

(Photograph – Dead Confederate Soldier, Gettysburg)

NOTES:  Psalm Offering 4 is dedicated to all victims of violence. Reuben’s painting “The Flagellation of Jesus” juxtaposed with the picture of the dead Confederate soldier in the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg underscores the last judgment scene in Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 36, “when you do this to the least of these, you do it to me.” While Jesus was referring to clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, visiting the imprisoned, welcoming the stranger,” conversely, when we injure our neighbor, kill our neighbor, who are all a part of the cosmic Body of Christ, we are also inflicting violence upon Jesus. This Psalm Offering is not just for the victims of war, but for the victims of domestic violence, the victims of racial prejudice, the victims of poverty all of which inflict as much psychological violence upon people as physical violence.

THE MUSIC: In comparison to the other music in Opus 1, one might upon hearing it for the first time (or for that matter every time) consider it the equivalent of George Harrison’s Hinduistic inspired song “Within You Without You” on the Beatle’s album, “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band.” I must confess that as much as I value all the music on “Sergeant Pepper”, upon the first 30 or so listenings, I would skip over Harrison’s contribution to get to “When I’m 64”. This Psalm Offering with all its dissonance might have the same effect for people. However, I find its starkness a welcoming contrast in a sonic sea of consonance. This Psalm Offering was originally an assignment in the composition of atonal, serial music for my Music Theory 2 class in 1971. Serial music, while sounding rather arbitrary and dissonant (many considering the sound “ugly”) is actually more difficult to compose than the simple songs we normally hear. There are strict rules to follow  in the composition of serial music. In editing this Psalm Offering in 2016, I have  composed and inserted new passages, namely the ostinato sections, into the music to lend a little more interest. The form of the song is a simple three part, ABA, form. It begins establishing melody A, that is introducing and establishing the tone row of pitches, much like the introduction of the “subject” or short melody, in a Baroque Period Fugue. Melody A is repeated varying the rhythm of the pitches in the tone row. The newly composed melody B, while remaining faithful to atonal music principles abandons the tone row with the introduction of an ostinato pattern in the lower register of the piano. Melody B segues back into the tone row of melody A, albeit, using different rhythm patterns for the tone row. This segues back into melody B with the introduction of the ostinato pattern in the lower register. Climaxing with a fortissimo, the music ends stating verbatim the opening measures of the music as it gradually decrescendos to the last pitches.

 

(photograph of my mother as a young bride on her honeymoon, June of 1949)

(photograph of my dad, Ruthie, myself, and my mom at my graduation from the College of St. Thomas, December 20, 1974, with a  Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music. One week later, Ruthie and I got married.

NOTES: This Psalm Offering is dedicated to my mother, Regina, aka “Queenie”, Jernstrom Wagner. My mom has been and remains an incredible person. She has always found great strength in God which has sustained her through many of tragedies in life, the death of her mother, when mom was 12 years old, her little sister dying two weeks later on Christmas Day, her dad dying when mom was 25 years old, the death of my sister, Mary, in 1997, and my Dad’s death in 2004. My mom received a Degree in Home Economics from Mount Mercy College in Pittsburgh, PA. She taught in the public school system, and later for the Gas Company in Pennsylvania conducting cooking schools throughout the state. She met my father, moved to Chicago, and raised her family. Though she substitute taught in the Catholic Schools, she insisted on receiving no pay, believing she had already been paid in having had the opportunity to receive her teachers degree in Home Economics. Always one seeking to help others, she continues to do so even now that she is 94 years of age. I composed this Psalm Offering for her in 1972.

THE MUSIC: The music is a variant of the Rondo form, ABCBAB. There is a running arpeggio in the left hand that carries throughout the entire Psalm Offering. Over that arpeggio melody A is introduced, seguing into melody B, followed by a key change to melody C, seguing back into the original key and melody B, moving back to melody A, and ending with a quote from melody B. I always thought of the left hand as a kind of water fountain flowing up from the lower register of the piano, cresting, then flowing back down. Though the Psalm Offering is written in Bb major, it has a kind of wistful, sad quality to it.