St. Columbia for Full Orchestra

Click HERE to access a recording of the piece.

ABOUT THE PIECE

When it was announced that my friend, mentor, and pastor Chuck Swindoll would be retiring on October 20, 2024, I initially retreated from the thought of writing something for the occasion. The task seemed too daunting for such a short amount of time. How do you sum up the totality of someone’s legacy in a four-minute piece of music?

The answer is you don’t. It’s impossible to quantify in words the legacy of this great man and his impact on millions of lives over the years of his ministry. So, allow me a moment of personal reflection.

Our family began attending Stonebriar Community Church in 2007 when we moved to Frisco. As a public-school band director and my wife, a stay-at-home mother of three young kids, we started looking for a church home. We visited one other church before coming to SCC. Once we heard Pastor Chuck, it was “game over.” We had found our home.

Whitney knew of Chuck Swindoll from his radio ministry when we lived in Lewisville, Texas. In fact, our eldest daughter, who was very young at the time, called him “the laughing pastor.” My first experience with Chuck was through his book Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, the first faith-based leadership book I ever read. It changed my life.

Little did we know that this man would continue to change the trajectory of our lives for the next seventeen years at Stonebriar. We raised our children in this church. We grew closer as a family in this church. We weathered storms together in this church. We served together in this church.

So, back to the present. I decided that taking on the task of writing a piece to commemorate this moment was not an option. The task began to come into focus when I moved from trying to sum up a legacy to simply saying thank you.

This piece is based on the elision of two hymns: Sweet Hour of Prayer and The King of Love My Shepherd Is. The first hymn reminds me of tradition. I am grateful that we raised our young family in a church that values traditional music and, more importantly, hymnody. Hymns are an expression of faith in song, and nothing touches the soul like a good old hymn. Growing up in the Baptist church, this is one of the first hymns I remember learning. Its melody and words have stayed with me throughout my life.

The second hymn is based on the melody known as St. Columbia, an Irish hymn I learned during my time at Stonebriar. I remember hearing its beautiful melody performed by the choir one of the first Sundays we visited.

The piece begins with Sweet Hour of Prayer presented by the strings. Pastor Chuck has always shown deep affection for our string players at Stonebriar. The B section then presents St. Columbia in a haunting melody, first by the English Horn, then expanding to a trio with the bassoon and horn. This serves as the first in a series of musical expressions of gratitude from various orchestra members who have served these many years together.

A return of the A section follows, this time filled out with more of the orchestra. Then comes section C – a fugue that begins in the brass, with motifs from St. Columbia interspersed with sections of Sweet Hour gradually entering the musical conversation. Both hymns come together in a joyous arrival stated by the entire orchestra, culminating in a dominant chord that refuses to resolve.

Suddenly, there is a return to the B-section statement of St. Columbia, this time presented by a woodwind quartet. All of these musicians are original members of the Stonebriar Symphony Orchestra. This is their moment to express their final musical words of gratitude to this great man. Finally, the strings return to the A section as Sweet Hour of Prayer ends this contemplative statement of love just as it began.

This piece, written in arch form, also serves as a dedication to the legacy of this great expositor of the word. Our new senior pastor, Jonathan Murphy, is of Irish descent. In a way, the two melodies work together, building upon each other and the statement that comes before each. Similarly, Pastor Chuck has chosen the book of 2 Timothy for his parting sermon series, where the apostle Paul calls his friend and brother Timothy to continue sharing the Good News with the world. I encourage anyone listening to this piece to read the short book of 2 Timothy as a prelude to this composition.

My life has been changed by this man in ways that cannot be put into words. It is my sincere hope that this music will help express that in a meaningful way to Chuck.