Angela Birkhead-Flight
Angela Birkhead-Flight is the director of music ministry at St. Martin of Tours, Cheviot, Ohio. Her published choral works can be found at Oregon Catholic Press, Kjos, Canticanova Publications. In addition to her composition work, she has done recording work and her piano/vocal stylings of contemporary church music can be found on iTunes, Amazon.com, and at many other vendors of digital music. This year's recording was made in collaboration with her daughter, Silver Flight. "Snowfall" is an elegant compilation of unique piano/violin arrangements of Advent and Christmas melodies.
Lenten Introits (published by Oregon Catholic Press)
This piece offers the flexibility of being both an introit setting and a processional chant. The simple melody, derived from the more ornate Crux Fidelis chant, works well with or without instrumentation, and with or without the choral parts. Having one soloist sing the introit
verse for the given week and a different person sing the processional verses can help to make a clear distinction between them to the listener.
The piece can be sung as written, with the introit before the processional verses, or it can be reversed with the introit sung after the
priest has reached his chair.
verse for the given week and a different person sing the processional verses can help to make a clear distinction between them to the listener.
The piece can be sung as written, with the introit before the processional verses, or it can be reversed with the introit sung after the
priest has reached his chair.
Moonlit Garden (published by Kjos)
With an intense text and a haunting melody, this piece works well during the last weeks of the liturgical year as well as during Advent. The lyrics are below. A choral recording with this text was not made, but below you will find a sound file of the band, Water2Wine, with the composer singing a different set of lyrics.
Deep in my heart there's a moonlit garden
where fragrant flowers open white.
So when this earth is filled with darkness
they still reflect God's holy light.
All nature mourns and longs for your justice.
Your people yearn for truth to shine once more.
And still there's hope in my moonlit garden;
its fragrance lifts my prayers to you.
And still we wait for your promise, O Father.
The new heavens shine forth your light upon the land!
The new earth so full of your goodness,
where the justice of the Lord will keep command.
Your son will come and shatter the darkness.
The night will shine as brilliant as the sun.
My hope fulfilled in a moonlit garden;
its fragrance lifts my praise to you!
Deep in my heart there's a moonlit garden
where fragrant flowers open white.
So when this earth is filled with darkness
they still reflect God's holy light.
All nature mourns and longs for your justice.
Your people yearn for truth to shine once more.
And still there's hope in my moonlit garden;
its fragrance lifts my prayers to you.
And still we wait for your promise, O Father.
The new heavens shine forth your light upon the land!
The new earth so full of your goodness,
where the justice of the Lord will keep command.
Your son will come and shatter the darkness.
The night will shine as brilliant as the sun.
My hope fulfilled in a moonlit garden;
its fragrance lifts my praise to you!
Laud, O Zion (published by Canticanova)
With a simple, joyous refrain (Ecce panis angelorum: Behold the bread of angels!), this is an easy to use setting of the sequence for Corpus Christi.
O Come, All Ye Faithful (published by Canticanova)
Written to immediately follow the singing of the introit for Christmas mass during the day, this SATB setting weaves the Gregorian chant into the trumpet, vocal and organ parts of this setting.
