Sacred Music by Frank A. Wallace, part I

Daily Prayer #3

My mind is one with God

My body is one with God

My soul is God

My roots are spiritual

As I have mentioned in a Coming out with Cancer, my current bible is Radical Remission by Kelley Turner. Dealing with stage IV ocular melanoma in the liver is not painful, my life is more or less normal aside from all the fuss and lack of ability to plan for anything more than a month in advance [Except for the past ten days since radiation beads were implanted!]. But one of the nine traits all radical remission survivors have in common is spiritual development. And so I have begun this journey through my spiritual past and my future.

I started my life at Grace Lutheran in Houston. At age 5 my Dad got a job in the Bay Area and we switched to a liberal Presbyterian church in San Carlos CA. I rejected it all in natural late 60’s hippie fashion and never went back. No regrets. But one could ask, “Really!?” My music became my religion, and thank God I couldn’t match pitches with my voice in 1970 at my entrance exam to San Francisco Conservatory. A largely self-taught guitarist at 18, I did well on my audition, but wow, asked to sing – forget it.  Thankfully they required me to take voice lessons and that changed my life. Brought me friends and family! My second female choir love, Nancy Knowles, is now my wife of 42 years and mother of our two sons, Gus and Adam.

But back to sacred – in the Quadrivium (the chorus I joined in 1974 in Boston) we did many mass movements and hymns to Mary from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The director Marleen Montgomery had deep roots in church choir and presented flamboyant, costumed concerts with sing-alongs and processions. Sound like church? Yep – always in a church.

Then in 1979, Trio LiveOak went to Spain on a ‘pilgrimage’. Our intent – to sing in as many Romanesque capillas and cathedrals as possible in the Catalan mountains north of Barcelona. The destination, famous pilgrimage site Montserrat (Mountain of Miracles) and the repertoire an equal mix of sacred and secular Medieval and Renaissance song.

Sacred song is part of my life

When I became a composer in the mid-nineties, I never set out to write sacred music. But I was surprised myself when I recently took a look at my compositions and saw how much is spiritual in nature. Either lyrics or places or people honored in the works have to do with the soul’s journey. Those will be listed in Part II of this blog next week. Two of my earliest compositions are secular works though based on sacred music: Cunctipotens Genitor 1997 – fantasy on Gregorian chant and The Stubborn Oak 1997 – Prelude, Chorale and Fugue after a Shaker tune. Nuevas Cantigas was written in honor of our 1979 pilgrimage and my CD Joy contains many early medieval sacred tunes that we sang as a trio i those days.

Nancy and I recorded two CDs in 1990 at a Romanesque church in Spain called Olius. In 1996 we recorded Lanterns of Fire: Love and the Mystic in Renaissance Spain; LiveOak and Company, Nancy Knowles, mezzo soprano, Frank Wallace, lutes, vihuela, baritone, Grant Herreid, lutes, baritone, Jane Hershey, viola da gamba. Lanterns of Fire was recorded at the Campion Center, Weston MA, a Catholic monastery. The album is a masterpiece of programming designed by Nancy herself in which the structure is based on a medieval mass.

Here is one of our favorite tracks: Vexilla regis/passio domini Pierre de la Rue, c.1460-1518

Space and Spirit

Have I convinced you yet? My roots run deep in Christian tradition. I have long felt an attraction to the space and spirit of a sanctified hall. I don’t call myself a Christian, but there is a theme through my life of getting back to spirit, to quiet, the soul that makes us all. For me it is best felt in a natural stone vaulted resonant space, often an ancient church. I try to feel that resonance on a daily basis in my guitar, in my voice and with our very special gong.

Here’s another track from Lanterns of Fire, in which Nancy reads the very famous spiritual poem: Noche oscura by San Juan de la Cruz, 1542-1591 with Niña, erguídeme los ojos from the Cancionero de Palacio in the background, performed by Jane Hershey, bass viol and Frank Wallace, vihuela de mano.

Part II of this article will share some samples and a complete list of my sacred and spiritual compositions. Next week…

Click on Lanterns of Fire: Love and the Mystic in Renaissance Spain to purchase a CD. Your support is essential to continue writing music, recordings and blogs. Thanks!