Et in Terra Pax means "And on earth peace" in Latin. When Linda Hanson was set to direct the New Life Presbyterian (Escondido, CA) choir concert for Christmastime 2017, I connected with her and asked if there was any outlet that would work for my creative passion--whether I could do an arrangement of some kind. She suggested adding 2 violins or a violin and viola to a really lovely song called Et in Terra Pax by John Purifoy. I opted for 2 violins after studying it. It's harmonically simple and has a fairly simple form (phrases/sections/key changes), but the voicing is very delicate with the piano and vocal parts, and gave me quite a nice challenge doing that with the violin parts.

At the concert, the other violin player, Roger Pine, almost didn't make it in time, and I'd have been playing violin by myself, with a much less full effect, if he'd gotten to New Life church 5 minutes later from his Palomar Symphony concert. I consciously played closer into the microphone and achieved a really good balance of sound with Roger and the choir and piano. Other than needing a bit more dynamic and tempo contrasts with particularly the choir and piano, it sounds really good. If it was faster, I think it’d be even neater--but since I didn’t control the tempo, and couldn’t stop a baby from crying for a second or two in the video, I’ve got no complaints! It went BETTER than I expected, and the violin balance was actually perfect. If my mom had filmed this on a camcorder (she instead used my digital camera), it would’ve had an even better tone quality for violins, but it wasn’t needed, since I didn’t have enough control over the process to ensure “perfection”. I really consider it one of the most meaningful musical experiences I've had in a while. I love how Linda Hanson got the choir to sound so good and how the instruments and choir have a good balance of sound.

My goal in writing it was to make it feel like the 2 violins belonged in there, like they were integral to the song rather than embellishments. I arranged it all in one sitting by hand at the piano on Sep. 9, spending possibly 3 to 3 1/2 hours total, beginning with lots of playing of it on piano, listening to my video where Linda had played the piano part and given me suggestions, and studying the non-harmonic tones, chords, what chord notes get the emphasis, all that stuff. I tried to use the violins to heighten the experience rather than make it different just to be different. The piece is actually pretty simple harmonically except for the "pedal tone" kind of non-harmonic tone (Google definition: a note sustained in one part (usually the bass) through successive harmonies, some of which are independent of it.), and its form is pretty straightforward, but it's actually really complex because of the VOICING. The voicing was the big thing to pay attention to. Sometimes there are things in the piano part which can't come through well because the piano is one timbre, so one or two violins improve on it, but I had to find ways for it to feel seamless, like they were integral and part of the original music, rather than just an embellishment. It's really a great challenge, which I loved.

What you can notice in the form of the piece: "Et in terra pax, and on earth peace" and then the words repeat but the music moves forward harmonically, leading to a key change with the same melody, but now the words are "Glory in excelsis, glory to God in the highest" and the following phrase "Et in terra pax, and on earth, peace" like before. Then comes a version of the chorus of "Angels We Have Heard on High", then a key change back to the original key in a reverent calm mood, which builds up to triumph: "And suddenly with the angel there was a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace' "--which then leads to a reiteration of the beginning in the music and words. It seems Purifoy had planned to reiterate the introduction when he chose earlier to change back to the original key. It's brilliantly constructed with an understandable musical form but still the spontaneity which the best written music has.

I really like how my arrangement and the performance turned out. This special performance was at the New Life choir concert on Sunday evening, Dec. 10, 2017.

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