This is the medium voice sample recording of the song cycle "Plenty of Time Together" by Michael Alexander Chadwick. The cycle is based on six poems by Ogden Nash and is available for high, medium, and low voice.

https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/plenty-of-time-together-medium-voice-22589588.html

Original composition: Michael Alexander Chadwick
Vocals: Maren Montalbano, mezzo-soprano
Available to record demos at https://marenmontalbano.com/session-singer/

Plenty of Time Together

01 Samson Agonistes

Way back in 1993 I was working in a music computing lab at my college, when I heard that my cousin had given birth to her first child. This was the first child of the next generation in my family, and I was thousands of miles away in school, unable to be there. I wrote this without any training in composition, my very first piece, and thought it had been lost forever. That is until my Aunt gave us a very cool gift. She had saved the piece, made several copies of it, and formed it into a Christmas decoration!  Using that, I was able to piece together what I had written all those years ago.

This is not typical of my composition style now, but I thought it would be fun to share my very first composition here on my channel. I hope you like it.

Hope's Lullaby, Op. 1

Hope's Lullaby

Way back in 1993 I was an undergraduate music education major at a college many, many miles away from my family. My younger brother's first son was born while I was singing in a couple of opera festivals in the US and Italy, so it was a few months before I could get back and write this little piece for him using the college's notation resources.

I wrote the melody based on a system utilizing his name, assigning different notes sequentially to the letters that went beyond G, and harmonized it as I saw fit. I had no education in composition at the time, so obviously this is quite rudimentary. But, I thought it might be nice to share.

Lullaby For Zac, Op. 2

This piece was written to celebrate the 120th birthday of Medford Lodge 178 in Medford, NJ and is intended for use in a particular piece of ritual.

Revealing The Light

This was a graduate music theory assignment for Violin and Cello duet - Octatonic Experiment with (0258) and OCT(2,3)B set. The number 258 is (666 exponents - (6x6x6) + (6x6) + 6).  Heh.

Beastly Dances

Beer Flight is a completely ridiculous and interminable thumbing of my nose at multi-serialism, complete with involuntary audience participation, composed in 2022 for a Post-Tonal Music Theory assignment when I was getting my Master's degree, and submitted appropriately enough on April 1st.

This piece is scored for two trumpets, horn, and tuba. The 12-tone series used for this composition is:
6	10	1	3	11	8	2	0	4	9	7	5
The duration of notes will be based upon the number of eighth note beats, starting with 0. So, 0 is an eighth note, 1 is a quarter note, and so on. The duration of a row's notes will be determined by the row beneath it or adjacent to it on the matrix. So, if the player is currently playing P4, the duration of the notes in the row will be determined by P6. If the player is playing I8, the duration will be determined by I6. Each player will play all twelve rows of the matrix, but the four players will travel the matrix in different directions. The first trumpet will play P, the second trumpet will play I, the horn will play R, and the tuba will play RI.
To the left of each player there should be a metal bucket. To the right of each player there should be a small table, with twelve 2 or 3 oz. glasses filled with a variety of beer selections. As each player completes their row, they shout the name of a beer and chug it, corresponding to the final note in that row (indicated in the score). The glasses must be labeled by number and filled with the following:
 
0 – Stout
1 – Doppelbock
2 – Porter
3 – Lambic 
4 – Bock
5 – IPA
6 – Dunkelweizen
7 – Wheat
8 – Amber
9 – Kolsch
10 – Lager 
11 - Schwarzbier
 
**Involuntary Interactive Audience Experience**
Each row of the theater will be equipped with a mystery box on the back of it. The boxes must be black, with a menacingly pink question mark painted onto them. The boxes will be distributed at random throughout the theater and in no predictable pattern. Whenever each row of the piece ends, the mystery boxes corresponding to that final number of the row will open, at which point a fun and exciting surprise will be launched at the audience member sitting behind that box. On the inside of the box, after the surprise has been revealed, a painted number inside will show the audience member which box they had, ultimately revealing to them P0, allowing them to share in the fun experience of 12-tone serialism.

The boxes will be spring-loaded with the following items, to be launched at the appropriate time according to the final number in the row (as indicated for the stage manager in the score):

0 - Banana Cream Pie
1 - A Live Chicken
2 – Gummy Worms
3 - Silly String
4 – Strawberry milk and Rainbow Confetti
5 - Shaving Cream
6 - A mixture of Lucky Charms, Rice Chex, Golden Grahams, Cheerios, Wheaties, Apple Jacks, Frosted Flakes, Grape Nuts, Fruit Loops, Cocoa Puffs, Frankenberry, and Cap'n Crunch. (Multi-Cerealism).
7 - Melted Rocky Road Ice Cream
8 - Lime Green Jell-O
9 - Cheese Whiz
10 - A full Surf 'n Turf Dinner
11 - KFC's Eleven Herbs and Spices

***Additional performance instructions:***

When a player shouts "Amber" any audience member with that name may slap the person next to them.

When "IPA" is shouted, any Canadians are permitted to leave and use the restroom.

Beer Flight

"Farewell" was written as a tribute to my late mother, who lost her battle with cancer in August of 2022. I was in graduate school for Music Theory at the time, and was given an assignment to write a piece utilizing a very specific set of instruments. I requested that I may add voice and percussion to it, and to the piece to a poem that was speaking to my heart at the time, entitled "Farewell" by Anne Bronte.

The piece is scored for flute, clarinet, piano, one percussionist, violin, cello, and soprano voice.

The poem's text is included below.

Farewell to thee! but not farewell
To all my fondest thoughts of thee:
Within my heart they still shall dwell;
And they shall cheer and comfort me.
O, beautiful, and full of grace!
If thou hadst never met mine eye,
I had not dreamed a living face
Could fancied charms so far outvie.

If I may ne'er behold again
That form and face so dear to me,
Nor hear thy voice, still would I fain
Preserve, for aye, their memory.

That voice, the magic of whose tone
Can wake an echo in my breast,
Creating feelings that, alone,
Can make my tranced spirit blest.

That laughing eye, whose sunny beam
My memory would not cherish less; -
And oh, that smile! whose joyous gleam
Nor mortal language can express.

Adieu, but let me cherish, still,
The hope with which I cannot part.
Contempt may wound, and coldness chill,
But still it lingers in my heart.

And who can tell but Heaven, at last,
May answer all my thousand prayers,
And bid the future pay the past
With joy for anguish, smiles for tears?

Farewell

"Sleep Baby Jesus" is an anthem for SATB chorus and organ, and includes four verses. Each verse has a different style but uses the same melodic and harmonic ideas. The final verse includes a descant as well.

This recording is an export from Finale, and will be replaced as soon as it is recorded with a chorus.

Sleep Baby Jesus - Choral With Organ

Spring Flowers is an a cappella treble choir piece completed in 2023. It is perfect for advanced high school students, college choirs, and professional choirs. This recording was created by Cantamus, a digital practice track creator app.

Michael Chadwick

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