The Lord's Prayer: Solo Setting - Tag

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I conceived the melody of my solo setting of The Lord's Prayer while driving the New Jersey Turnpike. It's true.

That's not to say I was in distress or anything (although it can get hairy out there!). No, it was more simply a way of passing tedious hours driving.

I have to go back to 1979 to set the scene.

My summers out of college were spent stashing away enough cash to get through the upcoming school year. I did this by working in the family business. My parents were florists, owners of the establishment then known as Allen's Flowers, at 43 W Broad St, Hopewell, NJ. "Flowers with a Flair" was our motto. My dad had a reputation in floral design and the shop catered to many wealthy clients and corporations in the Princeton-Trenton region of central New Jersey.

About that time, dad started a side business called Allen's Perennials. The idea was to provide fresh cut flowers to the New York wholesale flower market. He and my older brother, Mark, were partners in this operation. I worked the flower farm in the mornings and delivered flowers for the shop in the afternoons. Once, sometimes twice a week, we would get up at 3am and take a load of flowers to NYC. That's what I was doing as I composed this melody.

I had just finished a course in Renaissance vocal counterpoint. The first version was for mixed chorus. It was an odd thing to go in one day from the pursuit of high musical art-form at Boston University to driving a tractor in a dusty farm field in NJ, but that's how it was for me.

Maybe I worked up this melody just to stay intellectually alert. Or maybe I was really praying. Or, maybe the one lead to the other, I don't know. Many have been genuinely moved by the piece. I humbly offer it up.

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1 year ago