Compositions

This was a prelude for our 11 a.m. 2019 Easter Service at Saint Peter's Church. I use a small but symphonic-sounding ensemble of woodwind quintet and string quintet with a single percussion player and harp in this fun potpourri of Easter tunes.

An arrangement of the great Lutheran tune "Lasst uns Erfreuen" with an unnecessarily difficult harp part. We had one of the best harp players in the city (Melanie Genin) for our 2018 Easter service, so I made a nice part for her. She was very happy and so were the people listening.

I used a favorite small, symphonic-sounding chamber ensemble for this arrangement for our 2018 Easter service at Saint Peter's. The melody, an old French Carol, is in fact a Christmas tune re-fitted with an Easter text by John Campbell Crum (1872-1958). Since there was going to be dance during our service, I went all the way and used a rather blasphemes quotation from Richad Strauss' "Dance of the Seven Veils." There were no complaints from the clergy nor the parishioners. Only in New York City.. There is also a quite crazy piccolo passage at the end, which I rewrote for a subsequent performance per the request by the flute player Brandon George, but I still like the first, crazy version better.

Noël Nouvelet/Now the Green Blade Rises
(2018) for choir, orchestra and congregation by Bálint Karosi
The Saint Peter's Choir, Orchestra and Dance at Saint Peter's

1 Now the green blade riseth, from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

2 In the grave they laid Him, Love who had been slain,
Thinking that He never would awake again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

3 Forth He came at Easter, like the risen grain,
Jesus who for three days in the grave had lain;
Quick from the dead the risen One is seen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

4 When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Jesus' touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

Another Easter work based on the appointed Psalm 118 for Easter Sunday "This is the Day the Lord Has Made (2016)