The Recovering Choir Director

The makers of Monty Python, in their movie The Meaning of Life, famously asked, “Is life just a game where we make up the rules while we’re searching for something to say?”  

All silliness aside, this question would not only seem to sum up my experience in music theory classes, but it also encapsulates the overall impression that can be gotten from so much contemporary music.  Many composers today, however likable their work might be, still seem to be searching for something to say, as if they haven’t yet completely found their musical voice.  I am one of these composers.

Philadelphia’s Kile Smith, however, is not.  Unlike so much that sounds experimental, Smith is a composer who has found his voice:  Here is a man that teaches with authority.  Behind his work stands not only a well-trained pen, but also but also the excellent Lutheran musical tradition.  All of this comes together in Smith’s Vespers, first performed in 2008 by The Crossing and Piffaro.   This work combines old and new and embraces originality without eschewing lovability.  A recording of this work has now been released on the Navona label.  Learn more about it here.