culture / music

Open Mic Adventures XXV: “Venite, exultemus Domino”

The Portly Politico36 Comments

A quick blurb before today’s post:  I’ve released my second book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures.  It’s a collection of travel essays I’ve accumulated over the last four years, and it’s available now on Amazon.

Here’s where you can pick it up:

Pick up a copy today!  Even sharing the above links is a huge help.

Thank you for your support!

—TPP

***

Yours portly is going High Protestant this week.  Readers can thank Audre Myers for that one—she sent me the manuscript for her church’s new chant, “Venite, exultemus Domino,” at some point in the last few weeks, and I’ve been playing around with it on the piano.

I have always liked choral music, although I am not great at conducting choirs.  I did spend a good bit of time in college and beyond writing short chorals for saxophone quartets and quintets, and I still enjoy the mental exercise of writing little chorals.

That said, I’d never really attempted to play an actual choral on the piano.  When I play hymns and such in church, I typically improvise the left-hand chords, but I don’t typically read the bass clef verbatim.  Instead, I play the right-hand as written (at least the melody line), and figure out the chord progression by eyeballing the notes in both hands.  I’ve gotten pretty good at it, and it makes picking up new hymns quickly.

However, for this piece, I endeavored to play both hands as written.  The point of a choral is bring out the unique chord voicings the composer writes.  As such, I picked the easiest variation of this chant, the one by Richard Goodson, to try to play for this week’s installment of Open Mic Adventures:

Astute (or even casual) listeners will notice a bit of hesitation on my part in a few places.  After the fourth measure especially, I have to think carefully about the parallel sixths in the right hand and the bass notes in my left hand.

I actually prefer setting 607 below, with its interesting E7 chord on beats 3-4 of the second measure, but I 609 (circled in green) was much easier, being in C major.

Venite, exultemus Domino Transcript

The Goodson version appears in The Hymnal 1982 of the Episcopal Church on page 177, where it is labeled “A Song of Creation,” number S 229, according to Hymnary.org.  The text comes from Psalm 95, a song of praise to the Lord.

Happy Listening!

—TPP

Other Editions of Open Mic Adventures:

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36 thoughts on “Open Mic Adventures XXV: “Venite, exultemus Domino””

  1. Very nice, Port. And I chuckled at you and your reading of the title.

    I read what you write about music and haven’t a clue what you’re talking about. Music sounds like rocket science and brain surgery rolled into one. How does anyone learn it???

    Liked by 2 people

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  2. Nice sound, very short.

    So you do take requests? In that case, look up the sheet music for True (Silent Hill 2 soundtrack) as one to play next time. Or Pianissimo Epilogue.

    Liked by 2 people

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      • If you can get it, you’ll like it. It has a good scale, the sort that could be picked up by beginners, but it’s a lovely tune. Actually, they both are.

        Your book came through yesterday. We’ve both had the opportunity to read the introduction but not the key text yet. We will soon though.

        If you self published, how did you do the binding and getting it out there?

        Liked by 2 people

      • Nice! You might have one of the first physical copies.

        Amazon makes it very easy. You upload your manuscript through their Kindle Direct Publishing site (kdp.amazon.com). You can design a cover using their templates, and KDP generates a proof so you can see what the book will look like. Naturally, I had to upload my manuscript several times to get everything formatted the way I wanted.

        They also have program you can download called “Kindle Create.” That allows you to upload your manuscript (I wrote mine in Word) into the program, which converts it into a Kindle-friendly format, including title headings, etc. That file then gets compiled, and you upload that for your Kindle version.

        Amazon makes it easy. Of course, they take their cut—40% on the paperbacks and hardcovers, plus the cost of printing (about $2.54 for this paperback, and around $7.19 for this book’s hardcover version). Even the Kindle versions come with a “delivery fee,” and I think Amazon takes 30%. It all adds up to significantly less money going to the writer than the list price, but I do okay—at the current $20 price point for the paperback, I make around $9 and change.

        Could you send me a picture of the book? I haven’t seen a physical copy yet (my copies don’t arrive until 31 March 2023).

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Sure will, dude.

    We won’t often spend £16 on a book but the way I see it, it’s part donation to the site so it’s a good deal in my opinion. 🙂

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  4. Port – five years ago, Kindle wanted to charge me $1000 to go to print. I didn’t have that kind of money for something so … intangible, so to speak. How much is it now? My book just sits in the dust in some Amazon hallway somewhere. When I published it electronic, several priests asked me to get it into print as they wanted to use it in various studies.

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    • I hope you get the answer you need from that, Audre. I want to read your book but not on Kindle. I want a paper copy in my hands, something I can touch, something I can smell. I’m a stickler for tradition.

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    • It doesn’t cost anything to do a print version, as they do print-on-demand. Were you going through kdp.amazon.com? You should be able to log into your account and created a paperback easily from the Kindle manuscript.

      Now, they just deduct the cost of printing and their cut for every book ordered. There’s not outlay from the author. I just “pay” the printing price.

      Now, I did spend a little under $100 order my own copies, paying the printing prices mentioned plus shipping to get fifteen paperback and five hardcover copies for my personal use. Shipping was $13.00.

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  5. Well, I hope the paper version sees the light of day. 🙂

    Regarding the email comment I made earlier, I’m waiting for a reply and when it comes through, all will be revealed. Sorry to be cryptic but I need to know the reply before I can make moves.

    Liked by 2 people

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  6. This is my Kindle: Dang!!! I guess because it’s electronic, I can’t copy the image of the book. See if this works, ok? kindle – letters to margaret by A Bogart Myers

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