Category: Music for reflection

I am nearing the completion of a Christmas set of Psalm Offerings. Most of the music originated as four part choral psalm settings and motets I composed for my choirs and cantors to sing during the Season of Advent and Christmas over 40 years ago at St Hubert Catholic Community in Chanhassen. In this collection of 10 songs, 9 of them have been “reimagined” exclusively as piano music. One song is newly composed.

This collection of music is dedicated to the Holy Family present in the migrant and refugee families not only on my nation’s southern border but throughout the entire world.

The song I present here is Psalm Offering 8, Opus 11: In The Beginning Was The Word. I based this on the Prologue of the Gospel of John.

“Be still and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10, NRSV)

Over an 8 day period, I journeyed with a parish family as they kept vigil by the side of their beloved, Paul. Paul had been battling cancer for four years, and had reached the point when the best option was to let go of this life and enter eternal life. So Emily, his wife, and their children lovingly walked those last hard steps with him and entrusted him to God on September 8^th.

Over the last 8 days of his life, I was there almost daily with the family. After he died, we prayed together the Prayers for the Dead. And later, planned his funeral Mass. I wrote Emily, “This past week has been a very sacred week for me as I have journeyed with you, Paul, and your children. It is a hard journey, but it is filled with such great love. In my 41 years of church ministry accompanying people through many joys and struggles, I have found it important to enter into the joys and the suffering of those to whom I minister. I will never feel the incredible impact that Paul’s love and his death has had on you and your children. You have shared an intimacy with Paul I will never have. Yet, I have had the grace of you and your family inviting me into what you are experiencing and it is from there that I share a little bit of the grief you are now experiencing.

It has been a tremendous honor, a sacred one at that, for me. … I have attached above a simple song for piano that I composed just yesterday, dedicated to you, Paul, Zach, Teagan, and Evy. I call these piano songs, “Psalm Offerings.” Unlike the psalms there are no words to these songs. There is usually a scriptural inspiration behind them. What I experienced this past week is a line from one of the psalms, “Be still and know that I am God.” I think of these songs as similar to the Catholic custom of lighting a candle when one offers up a prayer for someone. The only difference is that a song is being played. Being a classically trained musician, I compose in that genre. For whatever it is worth, I give this to you and the family.”

As the psalm verse suggests, this is a meditation on the mystery and love of God. It is composed in the key of F major and is in simple 3 part, ABA form.

Psalm Offering 10 Opus 10: Mysterium Caelesti (for Paul, Emily, Zach, Teagan, and Evy) (c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

“David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod. ¹⁵ So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.” (2 Samuel 6: 14-15)

David dancing with joy before the Ark of the Covenant as it entered Jerusalem for the first time is a very vivid image and is the inspiration for this music.

I composed this for two very special people at St Wenceslaus, George and Jane Brezina. They are very involved in the music ministry at the church and George is “the sound guy” for the music ministry at Masses and other musical celebrations. Since St Wenceslaus was founded principally by Czechoslovakian immigrants in the 19^th century, it was only fitting that this Psalm Offering is called Polka Slovatnsí (Celebratory Polka).

As the title suggests this is a polka but not what one would ordinarily associate with the typical “In Heaven There Is No Beer” kind of polka that generally comes to mind. It is more in the style of the polkas composed by Johann Strauss Jr (when the Waltz King wasn’t composing waltzes or operettas).

The polka is composed in the key of A major. It is in Rondo form: AA,BB,AA,CC,AA,DD,AA,BB,A,Coda.

Psalm Offering 9 Opus 10: Polka Slovotsni (c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

Psalm 71
For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you. I have been like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all day long. I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel. My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have rescued. (Psalm 71: 5-8, 22-23, NRSV)

There are certain psalms that have a great deal of meaning for people. Psalm 71 is one of those psalms for me. This song is based on the verses above. As I reflect on this psalm, I find myself a child so very much loved by my God, who is both mother and father to me. God is the parent who never abandons me but is always looking after me.

As a young child, I remember going to the big Chicago department store, Marshall Fields, with my mother. It was right before Christmas and the store was crowded with people. My mother was shopping for clothes, a very tedious task for a four year old child. Marshall Fields’ toy store was a veritable treasure trove of toys, something more akin to my interest then women’s undergarments and the like. The toy section of the store called to me like the song of the Greek Sirens luring Greek mariners to their destruction. Tempted by the thought of all the toys beckoning to me in the toy section of the store, I wandered away from my mother. My mother knew me all too well and let me wander, keeping a watchful eye on me. After tiring of looking at the toys I suddenly realized that I was lost and alone in this vast store filled with people, my mother nowhere in sight. Little did I know that she was keeping an eye on me, just an aisle over from me. I became frightened to the point of panic! Suddenly, there she was in front of me, simultaneously comforting me and gently scolding me for having wandered away from her.

This is the God, the gentle loving parent that this psalm portrays so vividly to me. I dedicate this to my mom and my dad, who cared for me, protected me, allowed me to make mistakes all the while loving me so very greatly. Their death has not separated them from me. As they did, when I was a child, they keep a watchful, loving eye on me, just as my mother did at Marshall Fields in Chicago so very long ago.

ABOUT THE MUSIC: This song is in simple 3-part form. There are 3 melodies. If one was to label the melodies A,B, and C, the song begins with A which segues to B, then to C, back to A, to B, to C, to B, to C, back to A, and ends with B and a Coda. It is in 2/4 time and composed in the key of C Major.

Psalm Offering 8 Opus 10 – A Song For My Mother and My Father (c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All right reserved.

I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also. (1 Corinthians 14:15b-c, NRSV)

Praise the Lord, all you nations! Extol him, all you peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord! (Psalm 117, NRSV)

These verses from scripture were my inspiration as I composed this Psalm Offering. The tempo is Marcia Allegretto (Fast March). Though it is composed in the key of Bb minor, there is nothing somber about this march. Rather, it is a celebratory march.

I have dedicated this music to Debbie Gregor, the music director of the New Prague Area Catholic Community. Debbie is an outstanding musician and choir director. As if this wasn’t enough, Debbie is also an incredible person. The word “awesome” is often used to the point of banality these days. However, Debbie is truly awesome in the full sense of the word. I am very grateful for the ministry she does.

About the music: This is literally a fast march (quarter note = 120 beats a minute). The music is in rondo form. A1A2BA2C1A1A2B bridge A2A1Coda.

Psalm Offering 7 Opus 10 (For Debbie Gregor), (c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

Speaking for myself, the year of 2018 has been very difficult with the number of significant deaths that have occurred within my own faith community and within my own immediate family (just heard that one of my healthier ordination classmates was diagnosed with liver cancer on Thursday. My other remaining classmate is very ill, too.). It has been a weekend for grieving losses, and perhaps this is why the death of Marilyn on Sunday has had such an impact on me.

My heart sunk when I heard of her death yesterday, Monday, August 20th. Equally, my heart is very heavy for her children who lost not only their dad to death so very suddenly, but now their mother. I began composing the piano composition above on Sunday night. I finished it at 10 am this morning.

Tom was a longtime educator in the New Prague School system. He was my son, Luke’s, advocate when Luke was in high school. I told Tom on many occasions of how thankful I was to have him watch Luke’s back during Luke’s high school days. Tom died suddenly in January of this year from a coronary. He was 70 years old.

When I was assigned to St. Wenceslaus I really got to know Marilyn through the BeFriender program. A woman of great compassion and insight, Marilyn was the quintessential BeFriender. She is a good friend. Tom’s sudden death shook their entire family. As good families do, they have supported each other as they grieved the death of Tom.

Marilyn was diagnosed with cancer in the Spring. Surgery and chemotherapy could not suppress the spread of the illness. She entered into hospice several weeks ago and died this past Sunday surrounded by her children. She is an incredible woman of faith and there is no doubt in my mind that she and Tom are dancing in heaven, hence, the waltz I composed for the both of them.

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Psalm Offering 6 Opus 10: For Tom and Marilyn Hudspeth. (c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

Psalm Offering 2, Opus 7
A prayer for the victims of sexual violence.

Psalm Offering 2 Opus 7. A prayer for the victims of sexual violence. (c) 2017, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved. (Downloadable for purchase at Amazon and iTunes.)

All who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans, and turns her face away. “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me. For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my courage; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed. Behold my suffering; my young women and young men have gone into captivity. My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the young women in my city. Women are raped in Zion, virgins in the towns of Judah.” (Lamentations 1: 8b,c, 12a,b, 16, 18b; 3:51; 5:11, NRSV)

Susanna cried out with a loud voice, and said, “O eternal God, you know what is secret and are aware of all things before they come to be; you know that these men have given false evidence against me. And now I am to die, though I have done none of the wicked things that they have charged against me!” The Lord heard her cry. He (Daniel) said to him, “You off spring of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has beguiled you and lust has perverted your heart. This is how you have been treating the daughters of Israel, and they were intimate with you through fear; but a daughter of Judah would not tolerate your wickedness. This lie has cost you also your head, for the angel of God is waiting with his sword to split you in two, so as to destroy you both.” (Daniel 13: 42-44, 56b-57. 59, NRSV)

REFLECTION: Sexual violence has always been a part of human history. We hear about the sexual trafficking of vulnerable men, women, and children. We see violence enacted against men and women in the LGBTQ community. Just this year the #MeToo movement has swept our nation, exposing celebrities, politicians, and other people in power who have sexually abused others over which they had power. The sexual exploitation of people inundates the internet and our media. Men, women, and children are sexually abused and brutally raped. Over the last 3 years, I have been involved in picking up the pieces of over a half century of sexual abuse perpetrated upon innocent children by Catholic priests and covered up by the bishops of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER: In what way have I been guilty of sexually exploiting people? Have I contributed to the sexual exploitation of others? In what ways am I able to give aid to those sexually exploited by others? Am I able to open my mind and my heart to hear the stories of those who have been harmed sexually by others? Am I able to hear the stories of those whose sexual orientation is different from mine? How do I reconcile the sexual violence within me?

THE MUSIC: This music is composed in the form of a Prelude and Fugue. It is written in the key of E minor (the Aeolian mode). The prelude is in the form of a through composed melody often used in church hymnody. The subject, or melody of the fugue is borrowed from the opening measures of the hymn and then is developed in both the higher and lower registers. Sometimes the subject is expressed in retrograde (melody being played backward) or inverted (an upside down melody). The music concludes with a recapitulation of the hymn.

Psalm Offering 4, Opus 7
A prayer for the victims of corporate Greed.

Psalm Offering 4 Opus 7: A prayer for the victims of corporate Greed. (c) 2017, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows. We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought. With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven; we are weary, we are given no rest. Young men are compelled to grind, and boys stagger under loads of wood. The old men have left the city gate, the young men their music. The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning. (Lamentations 5: 3-5, 13-15, NRSV)

In you, they take bribes to shed blood; you take both advance interest and accrued interest, and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; and you have forgotten me, says the Lord God. (Ezechial 22:12, NRSV)

Do not be afraid when some become rich, when the wealth of their houses increases. For when they die they will carry nothing away; their wealth will not go down after them. Though in their lifetime they count themselves happy —for you are praised when you do well for yourself— they will go to the company of their ancestors, who will never again see the light. (Psalm 49: 16-19, NRSV)

“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Matthew 6: 24, NRSV)

Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you. (James 5: 1-6, NRSV)

REFLECTION: In the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 16, Jesus tells the story of the Rich Man and the poor beggar, Lazarus. The Rich Man, who has grown wealthy on the backs of the poor, lives life lavishly, feasting on the delights of wealth while Lazarus lives in destitution outside the Rich Man’s door. Jesus tells us that the Rich Man dies and goes to eternal damnation, while Lazarus ascends into everlasting happiness and life. St Francis of Assisi declared that it was not Pride that was the deadliest of the 7 deadly sins. Rather, Greed was the most deadly of sins. This pattern of the rich growing richer and the poor growing poorer remains true to our present day. The wealthy continue to prey on the vulnerable taking whatever they can to increase their wealth. Our forests are denuded, our water and food poisoned, our air unbreathable, and our land despoiled all to increase the wealth of the very few. Even basic healthcare is taken away from the poor who are in need of it the most so that the rich will not have to pay higher taxes. Jesus issues a stern warning to those who rely on their wealth for happiness (see Matthew 6:24 above).

QUESTIONS TO PONDER: In what way does Greed dominate my life? Am I willing to destroy others, to exploit others for my own personal gain? Am I willing to sacrifice my integrity, my family, my very soul for wealth? Do the things I have control me and own me? Do I identify with the rich and seek to emulate them? Jesus did not identify himself with the rich and the powerful of his time. He chose to live in solidarity with the poor and the despised of his society. How comfortable am I to be in solidarity with the poor and to identify myself with the poor?

ABOUT THE MUSIC
The overall form of the music is in three part ABA form. The A melody is in the key area of E based on the Greek mixolydian mode. The A melody begins with a loud fanfare of powerful, open chords and glissandos, followed by ascending and descending triplets in both hands. The melody has a frenetic quality to it. It is symbolic of the restless pursuit of wealth and power by people and corporations. The B melody continues in the E mixolydian mode at a much slower tempo, modulates briefly to a D dorian mode, then back to the E mixolydian mode. The B melody reflects the plight of those exploited and destroyed by the rich and powerful. The A melody is recapitulated only to be in the key area of B Greek locrian mode, returning at the Coda to E mixolydian mode. The false doctrine of greed as a virtuous path to happiness gets crushed as the music ends with powerful, open chords.

PSALM OFFERING 7 OPUS 7
A prayer for all those denied health care.

Psalm Offering 7 Opus 7: A prayer for those denied healthcare. (c) 2017, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved. (music downloadable for purchase from Amazon and iTunes)

He has made my flesh and my skin waste away, and broken my bones; he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me sit in darkness like the dead of long ago. my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “Gone is my glory, and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.” The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. (Lamentations 3: 4-6, 17-20)

And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. (Numbers 28: 8-9)

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. (Luke 10: 30-34)

They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Can you see anything?” And the man looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. (Mark 8: 22-25)

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2: 14-17)

REFLECTION: In Matthew 25, Jesus commands us to take care of the sick. Pope Francis has declared healthcare a basic human right. In many European nations, there is socialized medicine so that all people have healthcare. However, elsewhere throughout the world, including the United States up to the time of the Affordable Care Act, healthcare was a right bestowed only upon the rich. In underdeveloped nations without healthcare you died. In the United States if you were chronically ill, or had a disease such as cancer, you were denied healthcare or cut from healthcare by the HMO’s and you died. I witnessed my own sister, who bore for 25 years a chronic illness that eventually killed her, having to fight with her health insurance provider for the medical care she desperately needed. As imperfect as the Affordable Care Act is, we now find legislators passing legislation that will tear healthcare away from 24 million United States citizens. They are literally legislating death for the poor and many who are chronically ill, and returning healthcare as a right bestowed to only the very rich.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER: What do we think about the elimination of healthcare for the poor and the chronically ill and the deep cuts to Medicaid and Medicare? If we are for these draconian cuts to healthcare in our nation, how do we reconcile this to Jesus’ command that we take care of the sick? Am I willing to stand passively by as healthcare is taken from those most in need? Am I ready to advocate for those who are denied healthcare and work to change a healthcare system based on “for profit” to become a healthcare system “for everyone? How in my life do I care for those I know who are sick and chronically ill? Do I willingly spend time with those who are elderly and those who suffer from dementia? Am I willing to embrace and take care of a leper, a person with HIV, or people with communicable diseases? Do I show compassion and love to those suffering from cancer, heart disease, and stroke?

ABOUT THE MUSIC: This Psalm Offering is composed in 7/4 time. This music uses some of the characteristics of music from the Impressionistic period. Parallel V7 chords and a whole tone scale gives this music a certain uneasy ambiguity. Unlike melodies in duple or triple meter, 7/4 time lends a sense of unease to the music. The use of parallel V7 chords and the A melody based on those V7 chords tends to obscure a “home” or primary key area to the listener’s ear. It is almost like there is no place in the music where one can find rest, much like those afflicted with chronic illness. The B melody, totally based on the whole tone scale gives a “dreamlike” quality to the music. It reflects the medical limbo in which many of those who are ill find themselves. The A melody returns and moves to the Coda, ending the music without a tonal center. Perhaps, the unsettledness and lack of a tonal center best musically describes the plight of the medically uninsured.