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“Christmas 1945”
Michael J. Diorio
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Michael J. DiorioMichael J. Diorio (b. 1978) earned degrees in organ performance, with piano and music history concentrations from Westminster Choir College, the Institute of Sacred Music and the School of Music at Yale University, and the College of Fine Arts at Boston University, respectively. His principal teachers in organ were Eugene Roan, Martin Jean, and James David Christie. Piano studies were with Philip Sbrolla and Phyllis Lehrer. Studies in musicology have led to Dr. Diorio serving as a special project editor for Carus-Verlag (Stuttgart), by whom his dissertation is published as a first-edition of the Missa Hyemalis by Franz Xaver Richter.
As a recitalist, Dr. Diorio has performed throughout the United States and in Europe, where he was presented with a citation for an outstanding public performance by the Mayor of Innsbruck. As an organist and choir director Dr. Diorio has held positions at the Episcopal Cathedral in the Diocese of New Jersey, Washington Memorial Chapel (Valley Forge, PA) and, currently, at Church of the Redeemer (Bryn Mawr, PA). As a teacher he has taught at The Lawrenceville School where he served as School Organist and taught course work within the Religion and Philosophy Department.
James AgeeJames Agee (1909-1955) was a famed American journalist, screenwriter, critic, and a Pulitzer Prize winning author and poet. He was also one of the credited screenwriters on two of the most respected films of the 1950s: The African Queen (1951) and The Night of the Hunter (1955).
Agee’s work “Descriptions of Elysium”, from Permit Me Voyage, bore “Sure On This Shining Night”, which has been set to music by composers such as René Clausen, Samuel Barber and Morten Lauridsen. The text of Christmas 1945 is a beautifully provocative poem that reframes Christmas, drawing characters from the past into events and players of the present, and the future. The similes and questions posed are just as poignant today as they were when first written in 1945. Humanity, divinity, innocence and love are all questioned insomuch as their potency and relevance are concerned in our current time. Once more as in the ancient morning,The slow beasts, the fierce newborn cry;And, in the heart the dreadful warning:Is it I?
All each heart holds of love, resolvesOnce more today in angry grief,Enduring courage; and dissolves In unbelief.
The Magi’s gifts are subtle bribes:The shepherds worship clock and wage:In rattling arms, roared diatribes,Wakes the new Age.
Paraclete Press sheet music is available from www.paracletesheetmusic.com
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And, even now, at the town gate,Welcomed by many, fought by few,The clangor grows of Herod’s hateIn the morning’s blue.
And, in the straw, they hear, and stay.All that is brave and innocent, all that is love, reborn today,Is its time spent?
Where shall He flee, whose force is naught? Where lies that Egypt which sufficed of old,Now that each man is wrought Herod, and Christ?
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Written for the choirs of Church of The Redeemer, Bryn Mawr, PA
and their Service of Nine Lessons & Carols, 2015
Text: "Christmas 1945" from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF JAMES AGEE by James Agee.
Copyright 1929, 1930, 1931,1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1945, 1949, 1950,
© 1962, 1968 by the James Agee Trust, used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
Music: Copyright © 2017 by Paraclete Press, Orleans, MA 02653
All rights reserved.
James Agee (1909-1955) Michael J. Diorio
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Written for the choirs of Church of The Redeemer, Bryn Mawr, PA
and their Service of Nine Lessons & Carols, 2015
Text: "Christmas 1945" from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF JAMES AGEE by James Agee.
Copyright 1929, 1930, 1931,1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1945, 1949, 1950,
© 1962, 1968 by the James Agee Trust, used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
Music: Copyright © 2017 by Paraclete Press, Orleans, MA 02653
All rights reserved.
James Agee (1909-1955) Michael J. Diorio
"Christmas 1945"
SATB a cappella
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Michael J. DiorioMichael J. Diorio (b. 1978) earned degrees in organ performance, with piano and music history concentrations from Westminster Choir College, the Institute of Sacred Music and the School of Music at Yale University, and the College of Fine Arts at Boston University, respectively. His principal teachers in organ were Eugene Roan, Martin Jean, and James David Christie. Piano studies were with Philip Sbrolla and Phyllis Lehrer. Studies in musicology have led to Dr. Diorio serving as a special project editor for Carus-Verlag (Stuttgart), by whom his dissertation is published as a first-edition of the Missa Hyemalis by Franz Xaver Richter.
As a recitalist, Dr. Diorio has performed throughout the United States and in Europe, where he was presented with a citation for an outstanding public performance by the Mayor of Innsbruck. As an organist and choir director Dr. Diorio has held positions at the Episcopal Cathedral in the Diocese of New Jersey, Washington Memorial Chapel (Valley Forge, PA) and, currently, at Church of the Redeemer (Bryn Mawr, PA). As a teacher he has taught at The Lawrenceville School where he served as School Organist and taught course work within the Religion and Philosophy Department.
James AgeeJames Agee (1909-1955) was a famed American journalist, screenwriter, critic, and a Pulitzer Prize winning author and poet. He was also one of the credited screenwriters on two of the most respected films of the 1950s: The African Queen (1951) and The Night of the Hunter (1955).
Agee’s work “Descriptions of Elysium”, from Permit Me Voyage, bore “Sure On This Shining Night”, which has been set to music by composers such as René Clausen, Samuel Barber and Morten Lauridsen. The text of Christmas 1945 is a beautifully provocative poem that reframes Christmas, drawing characters from the past into events and players of the present, and the future. The similes and questions posed are just as poignant today as they were when first written in 1945. Humanity, divinity, innocence and love are all questioned insomuch as their potency and relevance are concerned in our current time. Once more as in the ancient morning,The slow beasts, the fierce newborn cry;And, in the heart the dreadful warning:Is it I?
All each heart holds of love, resolvesOnce more today in angry grief,Enduring courage; and dissolves In unbelief.
The Magi’s gifts are subtle bribes:The shepherds worship clock and wage:In rattling arms, roared diatribes,Wakes the new Age.
Paraclete Press sheet music is available from www.paracletesheetmusic.com
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PPM01705
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And, even now, at the town gate,Welcomed by many, fought by few,The clangor grows of Herod’s hateIn the morning’s blue.
And, in the straw, they hear, and stay.All that is brave and innocent, all that is love, reborn today,Is its time spent?
Where shall He flee, whose force is naught? Where lies that Egypt which sufficed of old,Now that each man is wrought Herod, and Christ?
DO NOT C
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“Christmas 1945”
Michael J. Diorio
SATB a cappella
ChristmasPPM01705
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PPM01705
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