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!
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Deacon Bob
I am a composer, performer, poet, educator, spiritual director, and permanent deacon of the Catholic Church. I just recently retired after 42 years of full-time ministry in the Catholic Church. I continue to serve in the Church part-time. I have been blessed to be united in marriage to my bride, Ruth, since 1974. I am father to four wonderful adult children, and grandfather to five equally wonderful grandchildren. In my lifetime, I have received a B.A. in Music (UST), M.A. in Pastoral Studies (St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, UST), Certified Spiritual Director. Ordained to the Permanent Diaconate for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, in 1991. Composer, musician, author, poet, educator. The Gospels drive my political choices, hence, leading me toward a more liberal, other-centered politics rather than conservative politics. The great commandment of Jesus to love one another as he has loved us, as well as the criteria he gives in Matthew 25 by which we are to be judged at the end of time directs my actions and thoughts.
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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.