O Wonder, Love and Joy!

I have sung with Millennial Choirs and Orchestras (MCO) for about six years now. This year, for the first time, MCO is sponsoring a composing competition. Needless to say, I was highly motivated to compose something...magnificent. Never one to think small, as soon as the competition was announced I immediately began writing.

My first attempt started with the story of Samuel the Lamanite and the Nephites in ancient America. As I wrote, it slowly tranformed into something else entirely. The end result was "Emmanuel, Our King of Kings" written for SSAATTBB choir and symphony orchestra. I like how it turned out, but I had significantly digressed from my original plan.

So, I tried again. This time I stayed true to the story of Samuel and the Nephites, and the result was something special. Also written for large choir and orchestra, "On This Night" tells the whole story of Christ's foreordination, birth and atonement, as well as the impact of those events on each of us. In my own eyes, it was "magnificent".

And then the rules of the competition were announced.

Simple accompaniments only, single instruments with optional obliggato, or a small ensemble. Less that four minutes in length. I felt that like a blow to the gut. Neither of my compositions came even close to qualifying on length alone, clocking in at over seven minutes each, and then there was the issue of accompaniment. It was heart breaking.

I get it. The last thing MCO leadership needs is to be innundated with hundreds (thousands?) of entries from amateur composers like me who honestly don't know the first thing about orchestral composition. That said, I thought what I had written could stand against just about anything this community of music artists could produce. And my pride completely shut down my creative muse.

Several days later as I was wrapped in sorrow and silent prayer about what to do with these works that I felt were worthy of some attention, a simple phrase captured my thoughts: "O Wonder". Try as I might, I could not dismiss this simple phrase. So, I embraced it.

I started playing an internal word association game. What songs did I think of when pondering the word "wonder"? Immediately, the beloved hymn "I Stand All Amazed" came to mind, and "love" joined "wonder". And from that, of course, the anthem "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling", which brought me to "joy".

Less than forty-eight hours later, "O Wonder, Love and Joy!" was born. Hopefuly a string quintet qualifies as a "small ensemble," but it is well under four minutes. Is it "magnificent"? I guess we'll see. Here it comes MCO.

Written for string quintet, and SATB choir.