Song Info – The Lord’s Prayer

My version of The Lord’s Prayer was originally written for Cathryn Howard and Carol Dinise for their second CD release. They are a Catholic music team and published by World Library Publications, a Catholic publishing company.

On the Dinise/Howard CD the whole song is performed first with solo female voice, then run again with full orchestration and choir. The version you hear on this page is a different mix of just the second half.

The Lord’s Prayer MP3 File

My first consideration for this piece was of course Albert Hay Malotte’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, the most famous version that most people associate with these lyrics. It was foremost in my mind not to copy any of the lines in Malotte’s, or to have any lines that could even remotely be considered “borrowed” or plagarism.

With the lyric content and the artists I was writing for, I knew it have to be reverent, but not too stiff. I intentionally kept the entire lead melody within the range of a 9th so it would be easy for other vocalists to sing down the road.

One of the elements in this piece I like best is where the choir repeats the lead melody in a sort of canon behind the lead vocal. This was a little tricky for me in some parts, kind of like a small primer for writing Bach inventions (I wouldn’t be so pompous as to say it approaches the complexity of a fugue). My favorite little moments in the piece is when the choir is echoing the lead vocal, but against different underlying chords.

This piece was composed in a traditional format – with pencil and paper at the piano. This was not a piece I could “cover up” weak writing style with production elements, nor did I want to.

Once the writing was finished, I started doing a MIDI rough draft with orchestrations. At the time I didn’t have ProTools yet, so all the tracking and arrangements were done on an 8-track 1/2 inch reel-to-reel with MIDI sync code. I had a lot of wires running to midi gear! This seems impossible to me know, but back when this was recorded I was using such a simple time code, that I could not sync up in the middle of a song. I actually had to rewind back to the beginning. I guess the good training in this is that I learned to have the parts worked out in my head before I started laying tracks.

The arrangement was laid down, a local choir was kind enough to volunteer to record the echo parts, and an opera singer I was working with at the time laid down some of the high descants you hear ala the “Star Trek” theme.

I had wanted to re-record this piece with a pop vocalist, just to see what the contrast would be with the traditional melody lines and classical style orchestration. Incidentally, my pattern for the orchestration was styled after Yanni at the Acropolis.

All the parts were laid down, but I hadn’t found my final vocalist yet. None of the studio vocalists at the time had quite the right feel for it. I just so happened I was playing with Freddy Fender in Vegas for a week at the Gold Coast casino, and had brought my recording gear with me to work during the week. I wanted these parts done right away so I went to the karaoke bar and heard an incredible vocalist doing Aaron Neville material, but this vocalist had a little more power than Neville.

I hired him to do the vocal part, which turned out to be a real fight. This version of the Lord’s Prayer had been written for a female vocal range, not male. And everything was laid down analog, I couldn’t just push a button in ProTools and transpose everything. The vocalist took the whole song UP AN OCTAVE to perform it, and I worked him very hard to get those high notes. There’s a high C at the end.

So that’s my one regret, I should have used a female vocalist on it. I would love to hear this recorded again with a real orchestra and a male/female vocalist with everything in a proper key for all. The song is in 6/8, which partly keeps it relegated to concert hall repertoire. I can’t hear it as a pop remake, etc. – and a country song it’s not. So 6/8 it stays.

I have received mixed reviews on this piece. Several people have told me directly and in no uncertain terms that they simply don’t it. Of course, I’ve also had many people say it has really moved them and they love it.

My version of the Lord’s Prayer was included on the Dinise/Howard CD, and this particular mix was included on New Faces Volume Three, a Road Records compilation CD. It was also performed at the 2004 High Desert Interfaith service with the Interfaith choir and myself at the piano. Karen Etheridge has also performed it several times, including Christmas 2004 at the Hi Desert Church of Religious Science.

Listen for yourself and let me know what you think. I believe that if it was re-recorded with a real orchestra and strong singers in a new key, it would be very well received and might even have a shot at becoming part of the regular repertoire for church’s. Of course, I’m a little biased. 🙂

I think I wrote this around 1999.

Music heads might appreciate this: In the Kurzweil PX1000 there’s that incredibly spooky patch called “Doppler Choir”. It’s one of the real standout patches of this unit. But where can you use it? It’s so bizarre. In the final few bars of this piece you’ll hear a little Doppler Choir run right before the final cadences.

The Lord’s Prayer MP3