Back in 1986, I composed a hymn for Pentecost entitled, “Come, Holy Spirit.” Not necessarily a creative name for a Pentecost hymn, but very few Pentecost hymns are named very creatively. I composed it as a gift for my then, 5 year old daughter, Meg.
This was during the time when there was a great Renaissance of Catholic Liturgical music. This was the time of the St Louis Jesuits, Mike Joncas, Marty Haugen, David Haas, Tom Conry, to name a few of the great liturgical composers that created amazing music. Of course, I, along with many others, created music for our choirs to sing. This song was created to be sung as the Sequence for Pentecost (Veni Creator Spiritus was the old Latin chant for the sequence).
Over time, working on a graduate degree at the St Paul Seminary, along with working 7 days a week in parishes, and, later, being ordained and immersed in parish ministry, this song got lost along with a lot of music I had composed while I was a director of liturgy and music. However, I kept all that music in a tote in my bedroom at home. During a recovery from another orthopedic surgery in 2016, I decided to begin taking all my handwritten music scores and transcribing into digital music files.
It was during the lockdown of the pandemic that I decided to revisit many of the choral settings I composed in the 80’s and 90’s, and recompose them as instrumental piano music. I released much of that music in a collection of music called “A Paschal Journey”. Mixed in with these up to date piano songs, was some newly composed music, too. I recorded the music and published it through CD Baby (It can be found on Amazon Music and iTunes under the name Robert Charles Wagner. It can also be found on YouTube and other streaming services).
Here is the music reconfigured for just piano.
Mystagogy – Pentecost by Robert Charles Wagner (c) 2020. All right reserved.
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since 1986. Meggie, now 43 years old, is a mother of two girls, and is an RN working at the State Veteran’s Home in Minneapolis, just like her mother, Ruth.
I think the music still stands up for today.
