Greetings friends and EA alum,

I am creating this blog for the sole purpose of making my music available for those who are interested. It will be a work in progress for a few months. Please come back and visit often as I will be adding things along the way.

The first thing I want to make available are those large works I started writing way back when......EA had the best music program in the state! It was easy to write music for such talented students. I never "dumbed-down a note." You all rose to the challenge of working with difficult music, and performing it at a high level.

My first work for chorus and orchestra was "Three Psalms." I can still hear Cindy Shaffer coming in on her first note....a high A! Talk about a challenge! I will work on making that into a CD in the near future.

When I came up with the idea of creating an oratorio on Genesis, Mr. Bez asked if I had plans to set the entire Bible to music! He wasn't far off as things turned out. Mr. Bez came up with the idea of including slides to go along with the music and make it into a multi-media thing. We both worked on this duel project during the Summer. For this first production, I had asked student Allan Grimm to narrate. Mr. Ihnat didn't become involved until the next one. If any of you remember who participated in this work, please speak up on FB. Like who was the drummer? Who played in the trumpet section, etc. Who had solos. Who fainted! Yes, let's keep the jib-jab on FB so everyone can see it, rather than here on the blog. Currently, I'm not in Pittsburgh, so it will be awhile before I can fill orders for CDs. However, if you want to order a CD, just email me and I will try to fulfill the order in the next several weeks. I have to burn the CDs individually, so it takes some time. Sorry I have to charge money for it, but $5.00 per CD will seem to cover it all.

EDEN was the next venture. Bez and I got even more crazy by adding silhouettes behind a screen to act out the story via dance. I just listened to this for the first time in years, and was stunned by the performance of "Paradise."That section is my favorite. Michele Malackney (Rouldolf) with her dead-on intonation did a wonderful job with it. Remember we all went to Hershey to perform it for the PMEA convention.

I'm not sure of the order from here on, but I think I wrote "Emmanuel" next. Then followed by "The Prince," and finally, "Armageddon." To think that these works could ever be performed in a public high school is crazy today, let alone back then. The energy was good back then at EA, and you and your families were part of that good energy.

I have spent my entire life writing music, especially sacred music. I will be adding CDs here that I have recorded along the way. I have hundreds of choral works self-published on-line that I will list later. For now, if you are interested in any of the 5 Cantatas (for want of a better name ) just email me at robertgfarrell@gmail.com and either send me a check or use Pay Pal to pay for the $5.00 per CD. I'll mail them for free. Don't forget to include your mailing address. Again, it will take a few weeks before I get back home to Pittsburgh and cam make the CDs. ( We have a summer cottage here on Lake Erie in NY state where we spend most of the summer with family members.)

For now, if you are interested in any of the above, just email me your mailing address. When I get home I will mail you your copy. See if it works in your player (sometimes CDRs don't) and if you are satisfied just mail me 5 bucks via check, money order, or use Pay Pal.


More later.