NEWS FROM CHRISTUS VINCIT LAND

Sorry it's been a while since I've last blogged here. Lots has happened as of late.

Let's go back to just a few months ago. My landlord, well, now ex-landlord, is what some like to call a "lying sack of shit". Last summer, on the weekend of my wife's birthday, he approached us and said "I have family coming in from California and I need to give them the apartment." Now, we had just moved there at the end of last February. Rent's paid up and he gives us that line of crap. So, he gave us until the end of August to pack up our duds and skedaddle on out.

We landed up leaving at the end of September and stayed at my mom's for about two weeks. Didn't work out. Long story that cannot be discussed in an open forum such as Facebook or this blog. Anyhoo, we went to my mother-in-law's instead and stayed there until just after Thanksgiving. (Incidentally, two days after we got to my mom's, my daughter Brittany discovered a "For Rent" sign in front of our old place. Thus, we caught our ex-landlord in a bold-faced lie!)

That weekend we got our own little "pot to piss in" (my mother would often say that - usually in contexts such as "How the hell can you afford that when you don't even have a pot to piss in?"). We're actually in an apartment building now, and it's quite nice. Heat's included in the rent (a major plus when you live in New England), and I'm paying $5 a month LESS than at our previous apartment where we had to pay for our heat.

Now that we've gotten established, and past Christmas in one piece (I hope you all had a happy and blessed one), and now that I'm caught up on another new project, I can finally post here.


Christus Vincit Music is finally available in blog form! YES YES YES it is! Easy to reach at christusvincitmusic.blogspot.com. My new Holy Angels Mass is posted there. My Psalm settings are getting posted there, feast by feast - yes, the very Psalms (some updated) that you can also find at the Chabanel site. I'm dubbing the my own Psalm collection by the name I had given it a decade and a half ago: Psalm 151. And with the Revised Grail Psalter being released in just one week, I can FINALLY get started on adapting the settings to the RGP translation. That last sentence alone truly excites me!

Well, off to do some more re-writing!
Peace,
BMP

THE PSALMS FOR SUNDAYS IV-V-VI

My own settings of the Psalms for the rest of winter Ordinary Time 2010 is up at Chabanel:

1) Sunday IV - I Will Sing of Your Salvation (Psalm 71 / verses written in a Gelineau style)
2) Sunday V - In the Sight of the Angels (Psalm 138 / verses written in a chant style)
3) Sunday VI - Blessed Are They Who Hope (Psalm 1 / Psalm tone same as tone for Psalm 138)

Enjoy!
Peace,
BMP

NOW AVAILABLE...

...at NO COST to you at all...

At the Chabanel Psalms website:
Two added Psalm settings by yours truly:

1) Proclaim His Marvelous Deeds (Psalm 96) for Sunday II (Year C)

2) Your Words, Lord, Are Spirit and Life (Psalm 19) for Sunday III (Year C) and the Sunday XV (Year C, second option)

The second appears to be in the form of a straightforward chant style. The first has a metrical refrain (6/8 time, with a descant), with chant-style verses that end with a hint of Peloquin influence in the organ accompaniment. In fact, those who might have used my own Today Is Born Our Savior (which comes with antiphon parts for two trumpets in B-flat, handbells, and timpani, as well as descant) might recognize the Psalm tone. (Like Joseph Gelineau did with his Psalms in the '50s and '60s, I keep the Psalm tone the same for the Psalm verses, regardless of its antiphon.)

Enjoy!
Peace,
BMP

FROM THE CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED

...home of the



I got this wonderful letter via snail-mail from the Director of Communications over a week ago, and would like to share it with our readers.

Dear Brian Michael Page,

Greetings in our Savior, Jesus Christ.
My name is Hillary Johnston, and I am Director of Communications at Corpus Christi Watershed, a 501 (c) 3 public charity.
I just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate your magnificent contributions to the Chabanel Responsorial Psalm project.
It is only thanks to your generous Psalm contributions that so many musicians are now coming to our site. Your contributions are truly artistic and appropriate settings of the Holy Texts at Mass.
Now that the project has "taken flight", I as Director of Communications will be assisting Jeff Ostrowski on a regular basis in promoting the Chabanel Psalms Website. Promotion will consist of simply letting as many Catholics and Catholic publications know about this free resource.

Sincerely,
Hillary Johnston

I am honored, flattered, and humbled to know that there is a source that actually appreciates my work for the Lord. I'm also honored, flattered, and humbled to know that there is a source where many composers have added many quality musical settings of the Psalms that are also faithful to the translations in the Lectionary.

Peace,
BMP

A COMMERCIAL FOR THE TIMES

I just finished recording a commercial to promote the Chabanel Psalm Project during these times of economic and liturgical turmoil.

Click here and enjoy!
Peace,
BMP

FOR YOU CATHEDRAL MUSIC DIRECTORS

Now available at the Chabanel Psalm Project for the everyday low price of $0.00, my own setting of the responsorial Psalm For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord (Psalm 89(88)) for the Chrism Mass. As my setting is the first Chrism Mass setting available at Chabanel that I know of, it has been placed in the miscellaneous section of the website.

OR

Click here for a direct link to the .pdf file of For ever I will sing.

Also, for those who haven't heard CVA #153, which features my own settings of the Psalms for the Sundays of Lent, yes - those are in the project as well, under Year B.

Finally, the Psalm for Palm Sunday, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? (Psalm 22(21)), is also available at Chabanel, again for the everyday low price of $0.00.

Bon appetit!
Peace,
BMP

PSALM FOR ST. JOHN LATERAN

Dedication of St. John Lateran - November 9

I have a setting of my own for free use at Chabanel. Feel free to print and use next Sunday if you wish.

Peace,
BMP

YOU ARE NOW FREE TO ACCESS MY PSALM SETTINGS!

I am happy to announce that the original Psalm settings I mentioned here and here are now available for free download via the Chabanel Psalm Project!


Here are the catalog numbers for the Psalms that will be in use soon:

This weekend coming - the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time:
Lord, let us see your kindness - #4556 (link to Year A page)

The Psalms for the Sundays of Advent 2008 can be found at #4553, #4556, #4559, and #4562 respectively. (link to Year B page)

ALL THREE YEARS in the liturgical cycle are uploaded for the Sundays of Advent (Immaculate Conception will come when I get to the Proper of the Saints section - right now I'm kind of working in order of the Lectionary) and Christmas Season. The first Sunday of Lent is also finished (all three years, and note: Lent 1A's Psalm is also used on Ash Wednesday). Oh, and for good measure, here's the link to the Year C page, too! Additionally, all of the texts are from the Lectionary for Mass; there are no paraphrases!

Here are some of the remarks that came into my e-mail over the past couple of days from Jeff Ostrowski, the project's founder:

Brian,

Your pieces are magnificent!

I'm here with the director, and we cannot wait to post them on the site!

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Yes, the highlighting and large font was included in the message as I received it!)

Your compositions are so lovely

I am posting them right now

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and finally, this morning, on this beautiful Feast of the Transfiguration,

Brian,

I have posted your psalms, and they are AMAZING

I cannot describe to you how wonderful they are!!!!

I am so honored you sent them to me

They are truly magnificent in every way

(Again, the large font and highlighting provided by the sender)

I think you'll like these settings, as well as those of other great contributors such as Jeff Ostrowski, Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, Sam Schmitt, Arlene Oost Zinner, and more. I am honored (yet humbled) to be in the company of these fine people.

Peace,
BMP