New Original Church Composition - "Compassionate Father"

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Hello everyone! This is the 5th composition I have written for my job as intern music director at Bethlehem United Methodist Church. This week's sermon was about serving a God who is compassion, and so the piece is built around compassion. For those who are interested, the previous compositions will be listed at the bottom. I have made it a goal to write a new composition for each week's service. Sadly, I will not be able to fulfill that goal for this week because I am not going to the service due to our school's musical (Seussical the musical). So, I am taking a break for this week. Perhaps I will still write something miscellaneous. Who knows? Anyway, this week's piece is based on Matthew 14:13-14 which reads:

¹³ When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

To provide context, Jesus has just learned that John the Baptist was beheaded. Immediately following this passage, he performs a miracle by making 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish sustain over 5,000 people.

I am certainly going to discuss the mechanics and ideas at the heart of this composition, but first I think it best that you hear what the final product sounds like. Here is my piece entitled "Compassionate Father":

Story

So, there is a little bit of a story with this piece, and it starts with the previous compositions. Each week, I found myself feeling more and more stressed about the composition as the week went on. Generally, I did not finish the piece until Friday or Saturday. This meant throughout the week (especially after I gave the titles for the week's service), I felt very stressed about actually completing the composition.

Last Sunday, I tried to go to bed around midnight. But, I couldn't sleep. I was feeling agitated by something, and I felt the only way I would be able to sleep is by finishing the week's composition. So, I did. I stayed up writing the composition, and by 3am, it was done. This seemed like a good idea at the time, but I found myself so incredibly tired the next day, and I had a full day of school plus a rehearsal after school plus a theory lesson plus a piano lesson. All of this kept me out until 11pm that night, and when I got home, I was so tired. I do not intend to do that again, but sometimes I do find myself in a mindset where I cannot relax until I have worked.

On the bright side, throughout the rest of the week, I was incredibly relaxed, and I wasn't really stressed about the service (minus learning the piece which is much harder than my usual pieces for the service. I spent a lot of time practicing this week).

Composition

Form

In analysis, form is of the utmost importance because it helps us to understand the context in which everything occurs. For this week's form, there are 2 sections. One themed on Suffering which could conceivably be called an A section, and one themed on Compassion which could conceivably be called the B section. In truth the suffering section is broken into 2 distinct sub-sections, and the B section is one section which repeats with variations. I will discuss the contents of the sections, but first I would like to discuss why I decided to have a suffering section.

Suffering

I decided to have a suffering section because you cannot have compassion without first having some form of suffering. Here is the dictionary.com definition of compassion:

a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

In the scripture example, Jesus must first endure learning the news of John the baptists beheading. He then feels compassion for the sick having endured suffering himself.

It is because of this pairing with suffering that compassion must have that I decided to make the A section of the piece a depiction of suffering (plus I was a little agitated as I previously stated).

The suffering section consists of an A theme which is 8 measures long. Notice the neapolitan sixth on beat 1 of measure 2. I decided to play with this predominant since I don't frequently use it, and it has a unique sound which aligns nicely with what I am trying to convey.

This A theme then repeats with variations.

This leads into the Suffering B section which thematically sounds very similar to Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave. Tchaikovsky isn't the only one who knows how to use a descending minor scale (though the scale is different, so I don't know why my dad[@remlaps] felt the need to point out that they are SLIGHTLY similar). This theme consists of a 4 measure antecedent unit (for those of you who do not know, an antecedent unit comes at the beginning of a musical phrase, and it usually lands on a half cadence. In this case, I briefly tonicized V):

Followed by a 4 measure consequent unit (for those of you who do not know, a consequent unit comes towards the end of musical phrase and lands on a more authentic cadence. Often times, the consequent unit utilizes similar material to the antecedent unit. The only difference is that its trajectory aims for an authentic cadence rather than a half cadence):

So in total, this theme is 8 measures (as opposed to the first theme which was 4 measures). I think the broadening of the length of the themes from A to B helps create a sense of relief for the listener. At first, an authentic cadence comes once every 4 measures, now it is once every 8, so it seems a little more relaxed.

The B theme is also repeated with variations:

After this, rather than resolve the leading tone, I play with V a little bit, and eventually resolve the leading tone in a deceptive cadence. I then use this VI as a pivot to V of D Major for the compassion section.

Compassion

This section, Compassion, is obviously in contrast with the first section. For it, I used a motif which I have used before (in the 3rd movement of my King Arthur String Quartet). This motif is D-A-B. This spells out a popular (or not so popular anymore with anyone except me) dance move in my generation called the Dab. I simply used it again because I thought it would be interesting to use again to see where it leads me. I followed this motif with the same motif up a step (E-B-C#). After this, I used the same descending figure from the B section of the Suffering section. I did this to depict the idea of sympathy in compassion. The idea that it requires an understanding of the suffering which someone is going through.

I then repeated this section with variations.

I then followed this with a coda confirming the cadence and ending the piece.

Ideas I've Played With in Regards to Leading Tones

There are several ideas which I have been playing with in these offertories. In this article, I will discuss leading tones.

Generally speaking, it is unacceptable to not resolve a leading tone up by step. When the ear hears a harmonic leading tone, it expects a resolution up by step (thanks to the harmonic context). There are two exceptions to this rule (at least known to me).

1). When a higher voice is resolving down from scale degree 2 to scale degree 1, it is acceptable to have the leading tone move down to scale degree 5 rather than resolve up to a unison. This allows the chord to have a fifth, and the leading tone appears to resolve since a higher voice landed where it would have landed.

2). The second exception occurs when the leading tone moves down by a half step to become the seventh of a dominant seventh. This idea has been accepted since the time of Bach.

At the same time, it is also generally unacceptable to double the leading tone. Because the leading tone has a certain function, doubling it will likely result in parallel octaves or parallel unisons. However, I made an exception to this rule using one of the previously listed rules. In this case, I had a French 6th of D Major with 2 G sharps (which I think of as functioning like leading tones). I resolved one of the leading tones up by step, allowing it to fulfill its harmonic function. I lowered the other by a half step to turn it into the seventh of the dominant 7th.

I did something very similar in last week's composition. The only difference is that the first chord in this case is actually a dominant 7th (it is a secondary dominant versus the French 6th in this week's composition.):

Previous Compositions

• YouTube Playlist All Weekly Church Compositions
• I [1/26] With God All Things are Possible
• II [2/9] God of Faith
• III [2/16] Holy
• IV [2/23] Just Mercy
• V [3/1] Compassionate Father

Conclusion

Thanks for reading/listening to this! There is certainly more that could be written, but I decided that what I have is enough for this week. Please remember that feedback is always greatly appreciated! I am quite thankful for the support that these compositions have been receiving (both in real life and online), so thanks for that! Hopefully I will see you next time!

(Note) In order to encourage meaningful feedback on the platform, I will check comment trails of users who leave superficial comments (ie "Awesome post," or "Upvoted.") and will mute any users who exhibit a pattern of leaving "spammy" comments.