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observers have promoted me to “legendary.” They an admirer of Rutter, but as I am twenty years older
must mean “forgotten,” but in any case, that’s getting than he, much of my choral music was published be-
too close to “the late composer.” So, if I want to com- fore he began.
ment on my life in the choral world, I’d better do it The only big change in my choral style came early.
now. And this is a good place to state that the title I am While studying with Randall Thompson at Harvard,
sometimes given, “dean of American choral compos- I was greatly influenced by his choral music, much of
ers,” means only that I am the oldest American choral which I had sung at Stanford. Several of the pieces I
composer. wrote under his tutelage were soon published: “Make
a Joyful Noise”; Variations on “Let All Mortal Flesh”;
“Praise Him, Sun and Moon”; and “Give Thanks unto
Stages of Creativity the Lord.” During the following summer, I studied
First, let’s look at the “stages” of my creative life. Hindemith’s Six Chansons and sang Monteverdi mad-
Over the years, did my choral music change? And if rigals. These became the models for my choral cycle,
so, for better or for worse? I’d be the last to know which Three Madrigals, on poems by my father. Their harmon-
are which—that’s for conductors, singers, and listen- ic structure is more like Hindemith than Thompson,
ers to decide. It’s easier to judge the early music for and in fact more like the madrigals I had written ear-
composers who write in more or less the same genre lier at Stanford. While I did not continue composing
and style for most of their career, whether sacred, dis- in a Thompsonian style, I have never forgotten what I
sonant, sentimental, “relevant,” etc. I have written in learned from him—particularly from his music: craft-
so many different styles, it is hard to compare them. All manship, choral balances, voice leading, choral po-
good composers know that music must match the style lyphony, and much more. (The Hindemith influence
of the text. Naturally, I used different kinds of harmo- did not last very long either, though it can still be seen
ny, melody, tempi for “Dan-u-el” than for “Island in in some chord structures.)
Space” or Seven Joys of Christmas. I recently looked at a chronological list of my choral
I am reminded of what some critics have said about music to see if there were any patterns to the types of
the great plays of Molière—that he is one of the few pieces I wrote over time. (Commissions have defined
great writers who has no style, but rather the styles of the type sometimes, but I have often written the piece I
all his characters. There is a grain of truth in that, but it wanted, then sought the commission.) The 1950s show
omits the important fact that his characters didn’t write a definite change from the sacred (referred to above)
the plays—Molière did. In my opera based on his play, to the secular (mostly humorous or satirical, including
Tartuffe, I had great fun giving different music—leit- “Rules for Behaviour at the Meeting House, 1787” and
motifs—to each character: the religious hypocrite, the Tourist Time.)
gullible father, the sweet daughter, the wise wife, the The first two of my larger works with orchestra
impetuous son, and the overbearing grandmother. The came in the 1960s: The King’s Contest and Seven Joys of
same principle applies to choral music. Christmas. They couldn’t be more different from each
But there is a downside to writing in such varied other: the first is a dramatic, boisterous, light-hearted
styles. Not many conductors or critics know how many tale from the Apocrypha in which the orchestra and
kinds of choral music I have written. Some believe I soloists play an important part (opera manque?). Seven
write only “difficult” music for professional or leading Joys is predominately choral, easy, based on carols. The
university choruses, while others believe I write for high 60s decade also shows four choral cycles (more about
schools and churches. A very progressive conductor at cycles later). In short, the only pattern I see is that in
an Ivy League university answered a message I sent each decade there is a mixture of secular and sacred
him by haughtily informing me not to bother him be- works, large and short, serious and light-hearted, ac-
cause his chorus sings only “serious music.” One critic companied and unaccompanied, rather difficult and
said I was trying to be the American John Rutter. I am rather easy pieces. (Even the greatest composers have

CHORAL JOURNAL February 2024 Volume 64 Number 6 45