MUSIC FOR THE CHRISTMAS SEASON: A Song for Christmas Eve
blue Starry Night
Here is the first of Christmas songs I have composed for piano. It was composed back in 1990 and was a Christmas present to my friend, Ken Smith, who, at the time, was the director of religious education at St Hubert Catholic Community in Chanhassen, MN.
It is a song in four parts, with four melodies, reflecting the Christmas story.
1) The first melody focuses on the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she is to be the Mother of the Messiah. 2) The second melody focuses Mary meeting and taking care of her cousin, Elizabeth, who was pregnant with the child who would become John the Baptist. 3) The third melody, softer and much slower than the first two melodies is that of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem to register for the census and trying to find a place to stay. 4) the last melody is comprised of melody 1 and melody 2, representing the birth of the Christ Child in a stable.
For Ken Smith, Psalm Offering 1 Opus 3 (c) 1990 by Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
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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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