Oddwalk Ministries

Category: GIA

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Maker of All Things

I (Orin) am a privileged and joy-filled composer today.

First, yesterday, the 9:30 J&A choir took my “An Advent Fantasia” for a spin (their first time with it) this morning, and sang it warmly and well. [ GIA: https://www.giamusic.com/store/resource/an-advent-fantasia-print-g8785 ] Shrine peeps may remember this from some years back. The combined choirs at the 11pm Christmas Eve mass will sing it as their first prelude too.

Then, yesterday afternoon, the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus beautifully sang my newest creation (like, from Dec. 3-5 of this year), “Maker of All Things” as the encore to the program “Fulfillment: An Irish Christmas.” My original Christmas text, which I posted on Facebook a couple days ago – with pseudonym provided by Philip Barnes – and an arrangement of the Irish melody SLANE (“Be Thou My Vision,” etc.). I’ll share audio here when I can.

My wife Erin, when she attends SLCC concerts, will, to help keep herself engaged, scribble little notes in the program as the concert progresses. The text of my piece was on the back cover of the program, next to which you can see her surprise in her purple notes – I hadn’t told her about any of this, and she hadn’t noticed anything (here or in the program) until PB started announcing it to the audience.

She also pointed out afterward something that had somehow slipped my mind – we sang “Lord of All Hopefulness” (another SLANE text) at my dad’s funeral and at the little memorial for both Mom and Dad here in STL these past few months. A little temporary amnesia allowed for a little “God-wink” today.

“Hope of the nations, and hope of each heart:
Dwell in us, love us, and never depart.”

Merry Christmas, everyone!

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The Liturgical Composers Forum: Pointing to Jesus

Starting tonight, Orin (today’s blogger) will again be attending the 20th annual Liturgical Composers Forum in suburban St. Louis. This gathering was begun by Fr. John Foley, SJ two decades ago, at the time a program of the now largely non-existent Center for Liturgy at SLU. These few days bring together some of the most familiar…

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Joy at NPM

Hi all, Orin here, continuing his usual busy summer of acronyms: a couple weeks ago was YSP, this week is the annual convention for NPM, National Association of Pastoral Musicians.  (Next week is another YNIA which Shannon and I will do together, Shannon already told you about one of those.) Anyway, yesterday was travel day, which is why this Jesus-Justice-Joy post is a day later than usual.

Just as YSP brought me a certain joy (which a tired me told you a tiny bit about in a video), every year NPM brings me a joy as well. While of course I am a church music director in addition to my Oddwalk fun, I’m here this week also as a composer of music for the Church as well.

Here’s a photo from the exhibit hall last night of a book from GIA that both Shannon and I have songs published in, called Crossgeneration.

 

Knowing it’s selfish mostly, it does bring me a bit of joy to see that music that I and Shannon have written in print – but beyond my own ego, part of that joy is it being still available to the wider Church to help them pray in song. (I hope to sneak photos of other octavos in print with WLP and OCP later today!)

Another joy this week is being able to reconnect in person with so many other composers I have gotten to know over recent years. There is a certain fellowship and camaraderie in that particular group of people, with a particular ministry to and for the Church.  Here are a few of us out to dinner last night, photo credit to Kate Basi.

 

Sharp eyes will see my wife Erin in the photo. Another joy is being able to spend a chunk of this week with her, taking a little personal time here and there to just be us, away from home and most of the responsibilities and worries there.

All of these joys are rooted in Christ and my faith in him.  It is Christ who gathers, who forms community, and gives us talents to praise him in song.  St. Augustine purportedly once said that “The one who sings prays twice.”  If so – and I think that’s right – there’s a whole lotta prayin’ goin’ on in Cincinnati this week at NPM.  Thanks for reading!   Orin

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NCCYM 2016 Videos

This past weekend, Oddwalk was invited to take on several roles that exemplify the things we find important in our ministries, at the National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry in San Jose, California.  We are grateful for these opportunities, whether it’s leading prayer, encouraging audience participation, making people laugh, or commenting on our retreat ministry.  Here are a few videos of those moments.

 

First, here we are, with Shannon’s wife Erin, singing a prelude before the Saturday morning mass, a piece by Orin titled “To Know Darkness,” published by GIA Publications and on our “Walk Away Different” CD.

 

Next, here we are talking a bit about our retreat ministry at a “Great Ideas” session later that day.

 

But a highlight for us of these NCCYM weekends is the “Youth Ministry Extravaganza” a chance for folks like us, who “do what we do,” to thank the youth ministers (and others) in attendance and hopefully feed their souls through, among other things, humor.  We relish the chance to create original “set pieces” for this night (previously “May God Bless and Keep You,” “Songs We Should Never Record” and others); this year, thanks to an idea from our friend Erin Brennan, we created a segment where we pretend to be covering the Games of the XXIII Liturginerd Olympiad.

 

For a couple extra “goodies” related to the Liturginerd Olympics, click here! Thanks San Jose and the NFCYM for a great conference, see you next year at NCYC!

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Another Publication! “An Advent Fantasia”

10868190_10152607335186309_4580600600644399850_nOrin learned today another piece of his is now in print, back at GIA for this one: “An Advent Fantasia” which combines several advent tunes and texts into what the cool kids a couple years ago called a mash-up.  Seriously, it is a prayerful merging of musical and textual ideas, and could even be appropriate as a first prelude on Christmas Eve – you know, not this year, but probably next!

No samples (sheet music nor audio) are posted yet, but you can see the page for the piece and order it by clicking right here!

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Thanks, Keaton!

Friends and neighbors of Orin’s, the Ibendahl family, recently celebrated with the oldest daughter of the family, Keaton, as she received her first communion. Her and her younger brother Chapin saw Oddwalk last year at their school – and Orin’s neighborhood parish in St. Louis – St. Margaret of Scotland. They didn’t have any Oddwalk…

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