EXPECTAVI DOMINUM is a setting in Latin for SATB choir, a cappella, of verses from Psalm 40. This prayer is rich in expressions of trust, patience and pleas for deliverance from affliction. My setting is austere but dramatic, with sudden piano – forte contrasts and pungent, tonal dissonances that lend a sense of urgency to this complex prayer.  It is used as an Offertory in the 4th week of Lent.

Text translation  (Psalm 40):
		
I waited patiently for the Lord:
			he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
			out of the mud and mire.
He set my feet on a rock
			and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put in my mouth a new song
			a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
			and put their trust in the Lord.

Do not withold your mercy from me, O Lord;
may your love and truth always protect me.
Amen.

Expectavi Dominum (complete)

A setting of Christina Rossetti's poem of the same name, exploring love, death and dreams.

Echo

An SATB setting of verses from Psalm 51, King David's great prayer of confession and repentance.

Miserere

A setting of Psalm 98 for chorus and orchestra that moves from light and playful to majestic and grand over its 6-minute duration.

Cantate Domino

A setting of the very lovely Maundy Thursday Latin hymn for mixed choir - a prayer for peace, unity, and love of neighbor.

Ubi Caritas

A grand, exuberant work for Chorus, Organ and Brass, setting a single word: Alleluia.

Alleluia!

A challenging setting for women's chorus of the Virgin Mary's great prayer in the Gospel of St. Luke.

Magnificat

SSAA setting in Latin of the prayer of Simeon in the Gospel of Luke, "Now Let Thy Servant Depart in Peace"

Nunc Dimittis

A modern homage to the greatest solo violoncello music ever written, the Suites of J.S. Bach.  Spectacular performance by Lawrence Granger.

Secret Thoughts

An exuberant romp for two pianos. This was my very first work with a key signature, and came only after long and difficult reflection. The exuberance is that of my then 4-year old daughter, Genevieve, to whom is it dedicated.

Divertimento

An energetic, Adams-influenced work from 1992, with busy textures, lots of cross-rhythms and sparkling orchestration. Two large fast sections frame a central Elegy.  Superb performance by the California Symphony.

Crossing the Rubicon

A very energetic, minimalist-influenced work for wind ensemble.

No Strings

From 1998 – my first a cappella choral work – this is a setting of verses from the "Seven Penetential Psalms" in a choral texture that often divides in 12 independent parts.

Exaudi

A choral Communion Proper for Christmas Midnight Mass

In The Splendor of the Holy Ones

Behold, A Virgin Shall Conceive

A choral Communion Proper for Ash Wednesday

He Who Ponders the Law of the Lord

A choral Communion Proper for Holy Thursday and Corpus Christi

This Is The Body

A choral Communion Proper for Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday

Christ, Our Passover

A popular choral Recessional or Processional in Latin: "praise the Lord all peoples!"

Laudate Dominum

A choral setting of the eucharistic text, "Hail True Body."

Ave Verum Corpus I (2008)

Meditation

SSAA setting of a thought-provoking poem imagining a meeting between a pregnant Virgin Mary and Eve, in which Mary consoles Eve with the news of the Child she carries.

O Eve

Prologue of my oratorio, A Rose in Winter -- on the life of Saint Rita of Cascia (late Middle Ages), who was revered by her neighbors as a social healer, a bringer of peace to centuries-old hatreds and bloodshed through her own example in forgiving her husband's murderers.

Bring us peace, bring us peace
Still our blood and stay our hands
And bring us peace.
Rita - mother, wife and sister,
Free us from the old vendetta
Bleeding with the bloody Savior;
Bind the wounds we give each other
Show us God in Christ and Brother -
Bring us peace.

I am the rose that blooms in winter,
The kiss of peace for a brutal world,
Mine the crown that's but a splinter,
Margherita, Cascia's pearl.

A Rose in Winter – Prologue

A setting of Isaiah 64:9, a penitential text associated most often with Advent or Lent.  The latter half incorporates true double-choir textures.  Suitable for liturgical or concert performance.  Commissioned by Cois Cladaigh of Galway Ireland.  This recording is by Matthew Curtis of Choral Tracks.                           

Text and translation:

Ne Irascaris, Domine, satis
et ne ultra memineris iniquitatis nostrae:
Ecce, respice populus tuus, omnes nos.

Be not very angry, O Lord, 
and remember no longer our iniquity: 
behold, see we are all thy people.

Ne Irascaris Domine SSAATTBB

SATB a cappella setting of John 10: 14-15 in Latin – "I am the Good Shepherd, I know my sheep and my sheep know me...".  Commissioned by Roderick Blyth for his wife Natalie on the occasion of their 20th wedding anniversary.

14 I am the good shepherd: and I know mine, and mine know me. 15 As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep.

Ego Sum Pastor Bonus

The text is the Sequence for the Mass of Pentecost. This setting is for soprano, clarinet and baroque string quartet.

VENI, Sancte Spiritus,
et emitte caelitus
lucis tuae radium.	

Veni, pater pauperum,
veni, dator munerum
veni, lumen cordium.	

Consolator optime,
dulcis hospes animae,
dulce refrigerium.	

In labore requies,
in aestu temperies
in fletu solatium.	

O lux beatissima,
reple cordis intima
tuorum fidelium.	

Sine tuo numine,
nihil est in homine,
nihil est innoxium.	
.
Lava quod est sordidum,
riga quod est aridum,
sana quod est saucium.	

Flecte quod est rigidum,
fove quod est frigidum,
rege quod est devium.	

Da tuis fidelibus,
in te confidentibus,
sacrum septenarium.	

Da virtutis meritum,
da salutis exitum,
da perenne gaudium,
Amen, Alleluia.

Frank LaRocca

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