Canticle for Instruments Overture

Back in the early 90’s, I was working on a Christmas musical called “Canticle of Christmas” with Tom Fettke. It was an exciting musical for me to work on because it was very different in that it was a fully symphonic orchestra without a rhythm section. 

Tom asked me to arrange an overture for the musical, but I really didn’t see how I could fit that in before it was time to record everything in the studio. Once again, this is one of those “God made a way” stories.

The idea came to me to use small musical quotes from “Angels We Have Heard On High” and “How Great Our Joy”. I wanted to do something that I hadn’t ever done before, which was to use little hints of the melodies instead of complete melodies.

Once I had that idea, the concept began to flow out of me. The arrangement starts off with a classical fanfare with full orchestra. I really enjoyed writing some interesting figures for the woodwind family and some great harmonic changes with the brass to utilize all of the textures available to the orchestra.   

I love the word “canticle” because it implies a unique song often employing scripture. Since “canticle” was in the title of the musical, it seemed appropriate to use that word with the overture also. 

If you listen closely, you can hear the woodwinds playing little snippets of “Angels We Have Heard On High” and the brass echoing the harmonies of “How Great Our Joy”. It’s a fairly short piece, but has a great climax at the conclusion with full orchestra.