Recent compositions:

Click here to view information about the anthem: "What Can It Mean That Jesus Is Arisen" -- Tune (KOENIG) by Robert J. Weaver and text by William A. Pasch, published by Augsburg Fortress Press, 2012. The hymn tune (described in the item below) is here expanded into a choir anthem by Bill Pasch and Bob Weaver working together. To hear a choral recording of the anthem, choose "AUDIO SAMPLE" in the Augsburg Fortress web site (linked above), or simply click here. One might particularly notice that the wonderful hymn tune "O FILII ET FILIAE" is echoed in the bass accompaniment of Stanza 2 -- "Stone-sealed no more, the empty tomb astounds us..."

Click to view the hymn on which the previous anthem is based with free download from Lutheran Forum, Summer 2011 Issue, together with the dedication of the hymn (and the anthem as well) to Pastor Richard Koenig and his wife, Elaine Koenig, an Associate in Ministry for the ELCA. Pastor Koenig passed away in late October, 2011. This hymn was sung at his memorial service in Connecticut.

Click here for information about the anthem: "We All Believe" -- tune (LEVERETT) by Robert J. Weaver and text by William A. Pasch (a paraphrase of the Creed) published by St. James Music Press. The anthem is a joint work by Bob Weaver and Bill Pasch. This anthem was presented as the final number in the Hymn Festival by the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists in April, 2013, at Trinity United Methodist Church in Springfield, MA. The congregation joined in singing the final stanza of the hymn.

Click to hear about and listen to the anthem "Here Marked Not with Water Only," a new (July, 2014) baptism hymn and anthem which represents another collaboration of mine with Bill Pasch, again published by St. James Music Press. We named the tune MORELAND ROAD.

Yet another collaboration with Bill Pasch, Most Certainly True, was published in CrossAccent, the Journal of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians in 2010 (Vol. 18, No. 2, p. 34). This text, by Pasch, is a versification of Martin Luther's explanation of the Creed from the Small Catechism. The article describing this text and tune is contained in this document. Permission is given to reproduce this hymn for congregational use in accordance with the printed guideline in the hymn copy.

For the 2015 Christmas season, St. James Music Press has published my arrangement of the familiar carol "I Saw Three Ships" to a less-familiar but traditional tune. This was performed by the Franklin County Community Chorus in Greenfield, MA, in December, 2014. To hear a recording of this performance, click here. To hear a very different rendition done by a quartet as it appears on the St. James website (www.sjmp.com), click here.

Here's a link to my composition, "O Taste and See" (SATB) - a work in progress - Sibelius sound file.

Summer, 2015 - I wrote a composition as a part of the Walden School's "2015 Create-a-Thon," a fundraising event lasting over the time of the Walden "Creative Musicians Retreat" and the "Young Musicians Program". My project I chose was to write a choral composition with 'cello accompaniment. I have (or the computer has) made a sound file to preview how the composition sounds. Please understand in listening to it that what you hear is only a computer rendition using the program "Sibelius" simulation of a choral group singing with 'cello. The text of the piece is a poem by the Late Richard W. Bachtold, "THE OLD FARMER'S GRAPE HARVEST" from his collection called Sacred Poems. This delicious poem describes the passing of the years and the overflowing bounty of the grape harvest each autumn. The farmer wonders in the autumn whether he will have yet another spring, summer, and autumn to again partake in this wonderful harvest of grapes ("purple poetry" as he calls it). To hear the computer rendition of the composition, click here.

In spring, 2019, St. James Music Press published a hymn-based anthem by Bill Pasch and me entitled "From All the Earth Send Up the Song!" for SATB chorus, organ, and optional trumpet or instramental descant. My hymn tune is named "NORTH HILL" in honor of the wonderful retirement community where my wife Anne and I are living.  The hymn text is a paraphrase, by Bill, of Psalm 100. Click to hear a choral recording of this anthem from St. James Music Press.  

In late spring, 2020, Bill Pasch and I arranged the previously described Psalm 100  anthem, "From All the Earth Send Up the Song" as a unison hymn-based anthem with a vocal or instrumental descant on the final stanza.  This unison version is also available from St. James Music Press.  You can click here for a video of this anthem sung live at the Trinity United Church of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada in November of 2020.

While not "recent" at all, this setting of "Kyrie Eleison" was one I wrote a number of years ago. It's for 3-part (SAB) chorus. Here is a computer rendition using Sibelius of this piece. Click here to listen.

Another choral fanfare from several years ago is my "Alleluia Acclamation" for SATB. You can listen to it by clicking here.

OtherMusical Activities:

For several years until 2016 I sang in the Franklin County Community Chours, directed by Paul Calcari. This chorus based in Greenfield, combines a wide variety of excellent music presenting, at this point, both a fall and spring concert each year as well as numerous other presentations for activities in the community.

I am currently singing with the Wellesley Choral Society, directed by Edward Whalen.  The WCS sings three major performances each year plus a number of other concerts at other places such as a Christmas Carol Sing at Elm Bank and performances at various retirement communities in the area.

I also sang in the choir of the Immanuel Lutheran Church. The choir was directed for many years by my wife, Anne Weaver, with time off when she went to medical school.  Please click here to view an archive of some of the larger musical works we did over the years when we were at Immanuel Lutheran.

For may years in the Maundy Thursday evening service at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Amherst, I had chanted Psalm 22 at the conclusion of the service while the Pastor and others participate in the stripping of the altar in preparation for Good Friday.  Here are recordings of three recent chants that I have improvised during the service. Psalm 22-2013, Psalm 22-2015, Psalm 22-2016.

Since we moved to Needham, Massachusetts, in September, 2016, Anne and I have been attending and singing in the choir of Christ Lutheran Church, Natick, MA.  Our organist, Thomas Berryman, is a wonderful leader in the music of our church.  It is a great pleasure and inspiration to worship with this congregation and to participate in the excellent choir and the very strong music program.

Here are recordings of two solo/duet pieces I did with the Greenfield Chamber Singers, Margery Heins, Conductor, at the Blessed Sacrament Church in Greenfield a number of years ago in a concert featuring performances of Magnificats (Bach and Monteverdi). Click for a recording of Et Exultavit from Monteverdi's Magnificat sung as a duet along with wonderful English tenor, David Hampshire, and including other members of the chorus. Click here for my singing of the Deposuit from the Bach Magnificat.

My wife, Anne, is a fine flutist as well as being a retired physician.  Here, she plays a composition of mine, Variations on Amazing Grace, as a part of the 2020 "North Hill's Got Talent" production.  Click here to view this video.