New Recording
(31 Aug, 2010)

The Music Department of Utah State University in Logan, Utah has just released a CD of their Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Cory Evans. The disc, called "Show Me Thy Ways," is devoted entirely to the sacred choral music of American composer Daniel E. Gawthrop. Included works range from unaccompanied motets to anthems with organ to pieces with strings and oboe. Executive Producer for the album was Dr. Craig Jessop, head of the Music Department at USU and former director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Dr. Jessop arranged for the Tabernacle Choir's recording engineer, Grammy award-winning Bruce Leek, to handle recording and editing responsibilities for the project.

Conductor Evans said, "It had already been a fantastic year for the Chamber Singers, having just performed for the National Collegiate Choral Organization conference at Yale University in November. We were in good voice and had really come together as an ensemble, so I knew we could create that distinctive "Gawthrop" sound of shimmering chords and lush harmonies."

You can purchase Show Me Thy Ways: Choral Music of Daniel E. Gawthrop on:

Amazon (disc or download)

CDBaby (download)

iTunes (download)

eMusic.com (subscription required via credit card)

or by sending a check for $15 per disc (check payable to: USU Music Department) along with your mailing address to the following address (postage is included in the price):

Dr. Cory Evans
Utah State University
4015 Old Main Hill

Logan, Utah 84322-4015

The disc(s) will be shipped immediately upon receipt of your order.

Two Choral Premieres at ACDA Memphis
(15 Mar, 2010)

It is a rare and happy event for a composer to receive a commission for a new choral work which is then given its world premiere performance at a convention of the American Choral Directors Association. However, for /two/ such premieres to occur at the same convention is an occurrence well beyond merely rare!

Composer Daniel E. Gawthrop was delighted to learn a few months ago that both the Furman Singers of Furman University and The Riverwood Singers from Riverwood International Charter School in an Atlanta suburb had been invited to perform at the March 2010 Southern Division Convention of the ACDA in Memphis, TN. Both ensembles had earlier commissioned a choral piece from the composer and each group hoped to be able to premiere its new piece at the convention. Their commitments to commission new music had to be made months before they were notified about the final decision of the convention's Program Committee, so a certain amount of faith was exhibited!

Dr. Bingham Vick, conductor of the Furman Singers, had commissioned music from Gawthrop before and was familiar with the process. He asked for an unaccompanied work for mixed voices and for an original text by Gawthrop's frequent collaborator, Jane Griner. The resulting piece, In the Same Breath, begins quietly, somewhat mysteriously, and builds in rhythmic intensity and dynamics to an enormous climax.

The Riverwood Singers' conductor, Amy Hughley, had not previously commissioned a new work but quickly became familiar with the process. Her ensemble is an advanced women's group and she needed a piece which could also make use of two instrumentalists, an oboist and a cellist. This piece, Drink from the Deeper Well, with another original text from Jane Griner, could hardly have been more different from that written for the Furman Singers.

In the event, both works were premiered to enthusiastic response from the audience of choral directors attending the convention and both are now in print from Dunstan House.

In the Same Breath (DH1003) for SATB a cappella chorus
Drink from the Deeper Well (DH1001) for SSAA chorus with oboe and cello

Three Floral Preludes Premiere
(08 Feb, 2010)

Organist Joby Bell gave two world premiere performances of Daniel E. Gawthrop's Three Floral Preludes recently, the first at Presbyterian College in Clinton, NC and the second at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Dr. Bell is a well known recitalist who regularly gives concerts on organs both throughout the United States and abroad. He is a member of the music faculty at Appalachian State University where he serves as Chair of both the Organ Department and the Department of Sacred Music. Dr. Bell's program also included music of Bach, Böhm, Franck and Mendelssohn.

This new set of three short and whimsical settings of familiar tunes provoked chuckles among audience members as they recognized "A Bicycle Built for Two," "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," and "The Yellow Rose of Texas" pretending to be serious music. Organ preludes are frequently heard in religious services as well as organ recitals, but are commonly based on the tunes of hymns or chorales. Adapting the prelude form to tunes of a more secular nature introduces some slightly irreverent humor into the mix. Daniel E. Gawthrop, the composer of the pieces, explains that these are called "floral" preludes rather than "choral" preludes because each of the tunes includes the name of a flower either in its title or its lyric ("A Bicycle Built for Two" begins with, "Daisy, Daisy give me your answer, do.").

The Three Floral Preludes are published by Dunstan House under a single cover (catalog DH0912) which is available through most print music dealers. Dunstan House publications are distributed to the retail industry exclusively by Subito Music Corporation of Verona, NJ (www.SubitoMusic.com).

Organ Work Premieres
(16 Dec, 2007)

Four Noble Gases by Daniel E. Gawthrop is a four movement suite for organ solo which was commissioned by the Program Committee of the 2007 Region III Convention of the American Guild of Organists. The world premiere performance of the work was given during the convention, held in Baltimore, Maryland during the first week of July. Hundreds of organists from the mid-Atlantic states and beyond heard the piece in a recital by Eric Plutz, organist of Princeton University, who presented his program twice to capacity audiences at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church.

The new work had been prepared for publication by Dunstan House and was available for sale in the exhibit area. The entire stock of copies of the new work was sold out within a day of the premiere performance and orders were taken from many disappointed shoppers for delivery after the convention. Also released at the convention was a new CD of Gawthrop's organ music, including the first commercial recording of Four Noble Gases. (Further details of this exciting new CD by concert organist David Pickering, called "Like A Fire," can be found in a separate News item below.)

When asked about the title of the work Gawthrop said, "Four Noble Gases is a set of small-scale character studies offering a musical response to the personalities of Neon, Argon, Krypton and Xenon. Although my scientifically better educated friends tell me that the periodic table of elements actually contains six noble gases, I decided to restrict myself to these four. (Radon is radioactive and thus difficult to get close to, and Helium is quite light and thus a bit of an airhead.) The four movements arrange themselves nicely into a slow-fast-slow-fast grouping for use together, but may be freely excerpted by players who need something shorter. Although one of the movements is frankly sentimental in nature, the two quicker movements are both quite forthright, proving unequivocally that it is quite possible to be bold and still be a gas."

Sample pages from the score and mp3 recordings are available here.

New Gawthrop CD Released
(16 Dec, 2007)

Concert organist David C. Pickering has recently released "Like A Fire," a CD devoted to the organ music of Daniel E. Gawthrop on the Grace Notes Media label. The disc was recorded on the much acclaimed Helmuth Wolff organ in the Bales Recital Hall on the campus of the University of Kansas. The disc features Gawthrop's organ symphony in four movements, O Jerusalem, which was commissioned for Pickering, as well as the first comercial recording of Four Noble Gases, commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for their Region III Convention in Baltimore.

Dr. Pickering holds an endowed chair and is Assistant Professor of Music at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa.

Also included on the album are two of Gawthrop's "Sketchbooks" for organ, Sketchbook Two (commissioned by organist Sondra Proctor), and Sketchbook Four (commissioned by organist and composer Carson Cooman). Rounding out the collection are the Four Trio Preludes (on Latter-day Saint hymntunes) and the title cut, Like A Fire, which is a toccata on LDS hymntune Assembly.

Ordering information for the disc can be found here.