New russian gospel

Yesterday we had composition masterclass in the university which is located close the church where ”Total Praise” started as a choir. 

There are so many russian singers and musicians who are both talented and extremely well trained in the classical music trade. In my composition class we looked at what defines gospel music. My goal is not to trade classical for gospel. That would be a bad thing. But if you know both you can create a lot of exciting new music. The song ”Total Praise” by Richard Smallwood is a good example of music that is close to both gospel and classical. 

When the students have such high skills in the classical trade it often produces laughter when we try to arrange traditional gospel and they can’t help but squeeze in some influence from Mozart and the other old masters. Of course it’s cool to do that every now and then, but it’s also cool to laugh when it comes out by accident. 

At the end of the day we worked on three different new compsitions based on Isaiah 43:19 ”Look, I am about to do something new...” I would say that all three songs had great qualities and I hope you will hear them when they are finished.

Tonight is the second of the mass choir practices and saturday is the concert.