music, art, and letters from the middle west
from the desk of www.nicholaslemme.com
In this newsletter...
Introductions | Propers Solfeggio | Music for small choirs | New Publications | Pelican Printery House | Square Notes Podcast | Skiing Powder
Introductions Welcome to The Buffalo Roam Newsletter! A monthly newsletter from me, composer and musician Nicholas Lemme. You are receiving this because we have collaborated in the past, you have expressed interest in what I'm up to, or simply because I find what you're doing interesting and want to stay in touch. If you ever want to unsubscribe (I hope you won't) just click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email. I'll understand. Why Buffalo? "Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam, and the deer and the antelope play." My roots are in western South Dakota--"the black mines and hills of Dakota"--where, believe it or not, a good number of buffalo still roam. I now live in Nebraska, just north of where Brewster Higley penned his frontier lyric in 1873 that later became known as Home on the Range. In this newsletter I hope to let you know what I'm up to in my little corner of the musical universe. e.g.
newly composed music, both scores and recordings
sacred music projects around the country
tutorials and resources that will help you and your choir find beautiful, prayerful and mysterious music for the liturgical seasons
the smaller, yet fun, secular musical experiences I'm having
and much more...
So, that said, welcome to The Buffalo Roam Newsletter, "where never is heard a discouraging word, and the sky is not clouded all day." First up: Propers solfeggio In Advent 2021 I began recording the propers for the Liturgical Year (1962) using solfege syllables . This past December 2022 I put all the recorded score videos for Sundays and major feasts in one spot. Despite these recordings being less than perfect (i.e. they are simply me with a hand-held recorder in a classroom on good & bad voice days) it is my hope that schola members world-wide will find them beneficial in learning this great treasure that has been handed down to us, and that directors will find them useful as another tool for training their singers.
Advantages of using solfege
Improves sight-reading skills
Improves tuning
Improves Latin vowel formation
Improves ensemble cohesiveness
Improves knowledge of the ecclesiastical modes in their form and function
Directors, send these to your schola members in your weekly choir emails. HERE'S THE LINK. New to Solfege? No problem. Here's a simple beginning tutorial. New Compositions for your small Church Choir As some of you may know, I've been posting video recordings of my choirs singing both my compositions and those of the great masters of times past. Some of these scores are available now at www.nicholaslemme.com, but I have plans to add many more of my own scores and those of lesser-known works of Renaissance masters in an easily searchable format soon! Below is a rehearsal recording of my Tone 1 Fauxbourdon set to the Marian psalmody from the Communio: Beata viscera. This is part of an ongoing fauxbourdon project, which aims to set both the Magnifcat and Communio Psalmody for the liturgical year to all EIGHT ecclesiastical tones/modes.
It is my hope that these will benefit smaller scholas who are limited in number and time but want to elevate special feasts throughout the year. I'm slowly in the process of engraving each tone for the specific texts of the year. Presently, I have all fauxbourdons written except Tone 4 (coming soon). If you need a specific Communio psalmody set to one of these tones give me a shout and we'll make it happen!
My thanks and all hats off to all of the wonderful singers I get to work with!
Make sure to subscribe to my youtube channel if you're in that neighborhood to get the latest recordings.
You can find the score to this recording HERE.
Publications During the past year I was honored to have a few of my works stand among a list of works by composers whom I deeply admire.
Benedict XVI Institute's Folio of New Choral Music is a folio of several motets written by 14 living composers Thanks to Chris Mueller for his engraving and Maggie and the Benedict XVI Institute Crew!
The CMAA's Parish Book of Motets is a compilation of accessible SATB motets by composers both living and dead. My Ascendat in nobis was commissioned for this project. It sets the offertory text that is silently spoken by the priest in every Mass. Thanks to the CMAA team for this opportunity!
Art you can see and touch. Pelican Printery House is run by artist Elizabeth Lemme, my better half. At her printery you'll find hand illustrated letter press cards, stationary, and more. Her collection is growing every month, so check in often. You can also contact her about specific commissions. This past year Elizabeth made a beautiful set of altar cards for Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco. Podcast(s) I'm listening to... The sacred music podcast, Square Notes, is still going strong. Season 5 has started off with the Story of Musical Notation (Dr. Thomas Forrest Kelly); a discussion with musician/sociologist, Dr. Kensley Behel, who is studying burn-out amongst church musicians and how to prevent it, and an inspirational interview with Franco-Lebanese organist and composer Naji Hakim. Dr. Donnelson-Nowicka asks the veteran composer/musician/organist about improvisation within the Catholic Mass and Hakim shares anecdotes from his time studying with Langlais in Paris. If you have not yet listened to some of these interviews be sure to do so at your earliest convenience. It is time well spent. The questions are insightful and the guests are experts in their field. I always learn something when listening. Lastly... When I was growing up skiing our little "mountains" in the Black Hills I'd dream of skiing big powder. We'd have maybe one day out of the year where the snow would accumulate to over 12 inches of goodness and freshies. Here's looking back to those days...and maybe forward to them, if my knees can hold out while I work towards someday purchasing a getaway mountain abode.
Did you like this? Feel free to share it with someone you think would benefit from its content. In the next newsletter...a free score beautifully engraved for you! And, maybe a bit about a piece I wrote for 80-some guitars suspended from the ceiling of a large room. Until next time...God be with you. Benedicámus Dómino! ~n.e.lemme © NicholasLemme | All Rights Reserved Lincoln, NE, USA Share on social www.nicholaslemme.com
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