Hello everyone, and welcome to the Fall Update Newsletter for composer and author Mark Nowakowski! The season of color is upon us, and our part of the world sees glorious hues emerging just outside our window. It seems a natural time for good serious music to me: the autumnal somehow peaks the contemplative spirit…
Before we begin: the pursuit of Beauty is rarely a commercially lucrative enterprise: if you’d like to support what I do, please consider commissioning a piece of music, or becoming a paid subscriber to this substack:
You can also purchase gift subscriptions for your family and friends!
Moving on, it’s been a very exciting time since our May release of METANOIA hit #1 on Amazon Classical. If you have yet to grab a copy of your own, various CD and digital downloads are available at this link.
First, a blast from the recent past and a big new related announcement: Last year I was privileged to travel to Stargard, Poland, to premiere a new work for orchestra and soprano soloist in the very cathedral where my mother was baptized. Today I am very glad to share with you a video of the performance of Speravit anima mea in Domino:
The performing orchestra - the Orkiestra Camerata Stargard - has now asked me to compose a major new work for them: The Seven Last Words of Christ, for strings, percussion, and bass voice soloist. I’ve secretly been hard at work on this project during my current sabbatical from the university, something which this fun little animated gif bears witness to:
Closer to home, one of my favorite (and most neglected) pieces, Ave Maria, was composed in 2010 for a DC premiere. It was recently resurrected and performed luminously by the Cleveland Chamber Choir. The score is once again available for interested performing groups, and a nice video of the performance follows:
I have also continued my work as the composer-in-residence at His Majesty’s Men, composing out one of the very first sacred melodies I had ever composed - an Ave Maris Stella. The video for this is currently being produced, and you can expect an update post — including the personal back-story to this work — as soon as it becomes available.
Wearing my film composer hat, I’ve been working on the music for the third and final installment of the Mass of the Ages Trilogy. Part 2 is available here, while a new director’s cut of Part 1 is soon to be released. As part of our work, we’ve been working on variations to the theme titled “Birthright”, which makes various appearances in the first two films, including very clearly in the credits of film one. Here, a variation underscoring a discussion of church history has been composed. The production is still a bit raw, but it’s far enough along to share a file:
Furthermore a more amusing side-note emerges: I was asked by the MOTA team to compose a brief 5-second long “intro audio splash” (think: Fox 20th Century films or the Dolby sound) to be the sonic brand for future MOTA videos. They had a “big video release” coming and needed something fast, so I spent a week working on a five second long mini-composition. In the end, the MOTA team surprised me by appending it to the beginning of a video narrated by one of our family’s favorite commentators, Michael Knowles:
My wife took one listen and said: “it needs percussion.”
Of course, she was right. So we spent two more weeks working on this five second bit, and plan on revisiting it once more. Currently, it sounds like this:
All of this aside, I’ve been continuing to make progress on my book, and also have been sketching more articles and commentaries for everyone from Sound on Sound magazine, to OnePeterFive, to this substack.
On a personal note, we were able to travel to Chicago to have two of our children take First Holy Communion at our spiritual home, St. John Cantius Church, and spend a few wonderful days celebrating with family and friends, just a few weeks back. Such moments make us realize how much we miss our old home.
As always, my family and I deeply appreciate your support, and we wish you a luminous, blessed, and colorful fall season!
-sincerely,
-Mark Nowakowski