COMPOSITION AND PREMIERE TIMELINE

• Fall 2025: Finalizing the text and mapping/sketching each movement
• Winter 2026: Composition and engraving
• Summer 2026: Delivery of choral/piano score. Creating the chamber orchestration
• Fall 2026: Creating the full orchestration
• November 2026: U. S. premiere on Sunday, November 22, 2026 by the Deer Creek Chorale at St. Ignatius Church, Bel Air, MD.
• June 2027: International premiere on June 6-13, 2027 with a choir from MidAmerica Productions and the RIAM Orchestra in Dublin and Kilkenny, Ireland
• COME JOIN THE INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE IN IRELAND in 2027! Click here for more information about MidAm International's residencies. 

COMPOSITION SAMPLES (UPDATED!)

When possible, I will post in this space samples of movements along the way so that collaborating choirs can have a "sneak peak" at the work.

UPDATE (6/15/26):

Below are PDFs of 4 of the 8 movements from the Requiem. Nearly all movements have been completed or are very close to completion and will be uploaded once they are finished and have been engraved and gone through one round of editing.

Please note that these are all DRAFTS and are not yet ready for distribution to choirs, other than to have allow singers and conductors to peruse the movements that are (mostly) complete. However, anything I'm posting at this point in the process is not likely to see major changes in the final draft. Once a final score is ready, I will e-mail each participating choir's director and indicate that it is ready to print and distribute. 

I am on track with the timeline and will have choral/piano scores ready by the end of the summer. Orchestration is also well underway at this point!

D. McDavitt

I. Glory (Introit) uploaded 6/14/26

II. Unto My Words, O Lord, Give Ear (Kyrie) uploaded 6/15/26

III. Meditation: Not One Sparrow is Forgotten uploaded 6/15/26

IV. The Lodgepole Pine (Sequence) -- to be uploaded soon

V. Meditation: The Lone, Wild Bird uploaded (with updated file) 7/25/26

VI. Holy, Holy (Sanctus) uploaded 7/25/26

VII. None Other Lamb (Agnus Dei) uploaded 6/15/26

VIII. Crossing Over (In paradisum) uploaded 8/2/26

ABOUT THE COMPOSITION

A few years ago, I wrote a setting of Lux Aeterna for choir and orchestra, a 5-minute work premiered on Palm Sunday 2024 by the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. I intended to build on that work to start writing a whole Requiem using the standard liturgical texts. But I found that the ideas just weren’t coming the way I wanted them to, and I found that the Lux Aeterna seemed whole on its own. So I began pondering other ways to create a piece about life and death.

As I considered the texts on this subject that held the most meaning for me, I was drawn to one of the first works I had composed that I felt really represented my voice and mature training as a composer, a setting of the Southern Harmony text, “Bound for the Promised Land.” So much of that text reflects how I envision the crossing over from live to death. While discussing this concept with one of my mentors, Rosalind Hall, she told me, “Well, that’s your title: Crossing Over.”

And then it started coming together. I sought out texts that evoked the images that resonate with me, and some of the music that first drew me to consider a career in music. And I thought of my grandfather, singing shape-note hymns in country churches during the Great Depression.

Yet as a classically-trained conductor, I admire so much of the great requiems of composers like Fauré, Verdi, Brahms, and Mozart, the last one holding special meaning for me and so many others. So although my libretto uses texts from mostly American sacred music traditions (including Shaker songs, shape-note songs, and publications like Sacred Harp and Southern Harmony), I am still using Mozart’s structure and formed mine after his, using the liturgical texts as subtitles.

But then I needed something for the section of the Requiem commonly known as the “Sequence.” This is the part that speaks of the fears, anxieties, pains, and intense mourning that is part of death. Nothing I found gave voice to my own convictions regarding this element of the life and death experience.

So I reached out to Glen Nelson, a noted writer, art collector and critic, and overall polymath and promoter of many artists, who has written texts for my compositions, along with libretti for many other composers. Glen always has an idea for you, and it usually is not one you’d expect, and once it is fleshed out, it always seems to have a soulful, buoyant tone.

He told me of his fascination with the lodgepole pine, a tree that is highly dependent on fire for regrowth. The seeds within its cones are sealed in by resin, but once exposed to the heat, they fall to the now nutrient-rich ash bed and begin to grow anew. This concept perfectly evokes the themes of flames and wrath that are part of the Sequence, while projecting the powerful concept of regrowth and return that is so important to my concept of death. He wrote five short couplets based on texts from the liturgical "sequence."

TEXTS
(may still be adapted until work is complete)
UPDATED 6/15/26

I. Glory (Introit)
Texts by Samuel Stennett (1727-1795), Choice Selection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (pub. 1827), Christan Songster (pub. 1858)

On Jordan’s stormy banks I tand and cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land, where my possessions lie.
O the transporting rapturous scene that rises to my sight!
Sweet fields arrayed in living green, and rivers of delight!
I am bound for the promised land, I am bound for the promised land;
O who will come and go with me ? I am bound for the promised land.

And to glory I will go, and to glory I will go;
When I set out for glory, I’ll leave the world behind.
And to glory I will go, and to glory I will go;
Come, let us travel on, and to glory we will go.           

I’m just a poor, wayfaring stranger while traveling through this world of woe;
But there’s no sickness toil or danger in that bright world to which I go.
I’m going there to see my father, He said he’d meet me when I come.
I’m just a-going over Jordan, I’m just a-going over home.

I know dark clouds will gather o’er me, I know my way lies rough and steep;
But beauteous fields lie just before me where God’s redeemed their vigils keep.
I’m going there to see my mother, She said she’d meet me when I come.
I’m just a-going over Jordan, I’m just a-going over home.

I’m goin’ wear the crown of glory when I get home to that bright land,
I want to shout Salvation’s story in concert with that bloodwash’d band.
I’m goin’ there to see my Savior to sing his praises evermore;
I’m just a-goin’ over Jordan, I’m just a-goin’ over home.

And to glory I will go, and to glory I will go;
When I set out for glory, I’ll leave the world behind.
And to glory I will go, and to glory I will go;
Come, let us travel on, and to glory we will go.     

There generous fruits that never fail on trees immortal grow;
There rocks and hills, and brooks and vales, with milk and honey flow.
I am bound for the promised land, I am bound for the promised land;
O who will come and go with me? I am bound for the promised land.

II. Unto My Words, O Lord, Give Ear (Kyrie)
Text by John Barnard (Marblehead, MA, 1681-1770); 2nd verse by Daniel McDavitt

Unto my words, O Lord, give ear, my meditation heed,
While lowly bow’d in sacred fear, thy strength my soul doth need.
O hearken when to thee I cry, Thou art my hope and stay,
I feel Thy Spirit drawing nigh, when unto thee I pray.

When far from home my spirit strays, through shadows dark and wide,
I long for thee through nights and days, O draw me to thy side.
O hearken when to thee I cry, Thou art my hope and stay,
I feel Thy Spirit drawing nigh, when unto thee I pray.

Within thy temple, songs of praise shall evermore resound,
In anthems sweet my voice I’ll raise for blessings that abound.
O hearken when to thee I cry, Thou art my hope and stay,
I feel Thy Spirit drawing nigh, when unto thee I pray.

III. Meditation: Not One Sparrow Is Forgotten
Text from Shaker Music (pub. 1875, Mount Lebanon, New York)

O’er all the wide, extended plains shines one eternal day,
Where God the Son forever reigns and scatters night away.

Not one sparrow is forgotten, e’en the raven God will feed;
And the lily of the valley, Heaven grants its every need.
Then shall I not trust thee, Father? In thy mercy have a share;
And through faith and prayer, my mother? Merit thy protecting care?

IV. The Lodgepole Pine (Sequentia)
Texts by Glen Nelson

 Dies Irae

I am a lodgepole pine whose seeds
Are sealed in resined cones and needs
A forest fire for my release,
A wrathful day before my peace.

Tuba Mirum

Or a trumpeter swan whose cry
Is like the blare of judgment nigh,
A mateless, lonely, flying soul
In search of peace, a sandy shoal.

Rex Tremendae

Save me, someone, something, some place.
Show me mercy, lend me some grace
That I may not be worthy of
But crave and need and seek and love.

Recordare

I almost recall such a home
Before I left the world to roam.
Its peacefulness I nearly see
And wonder, does it still know me?

Confutatis

I am a pine in flames of woe
But understand and somehow know
That from the ashes I can rise
And reach again toward the skies.

V. Meditation: The Lone, Wild Bird
Text by Henry McFayden (1877-1964); 2nd verse by Daniel McDavitt

The lone, wild bird in lofty flight
Is still with Thee, nor leaves Thy sight.
And I am Thine! I rest in Thee.
Great Spirit, come, and rest in me.

The whispering trees in shadowed wood
Stand rooted firm as Thou hast stood.
And I am Thine! I rest in Thee.
Great Spirit, come, and rest in me.

The ends of earth are in Thy hand,
The sea's dark deep and far off land.
And I am Thine! I rest in Thee.
Great Spirit, come, and rest in me.

VI. Holy, Holy (Sanctus)
Text by Daniel McDavitt

Holy days out in the woods,
Where hallowed trees through ages stood,
The wind-swept leaves bring gentle peace,
And restless hearts find sweet release.

Holy seasons in the fields,
Where patient earth her blooms reveal;
The birds cry out through thinning air,
And sing to all their ancient prayer.

Holy visions by the shore,
Where flowing waters faintly roar;
The harps eternal sweetly ring,
Our homeland waits beyond the spring.

Hosanna! Hosanna!

The rivers swell their chorus high.
The woods and fields their joyful anthems raise.
The mountains ring beneath the sky.
The seas resound with hymns of endless praise.

The earth awakes with morning light;
The golden dawn invites the world to sing.
All living things their voices unite,
And heaven and earth in holy splendor ring.

Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!

VII. None Other Lamb (Agnus Dei)
Text by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894)

None other Lamb, none other name,
None other hope in heaven or earth or sea,
None other hiding-place from guilt and shame,
None beside thee.

My faith burns low, my hope burns low;
Only my heart's desire cries out in me
By the deep thunder of its want and woe,
Cries out to thee.

Lord, thou art life, though I be dead;
Love's fire thou art, however cold I be:
Nor heav'n have I, nor place to lay my head,
Nor home, but thee.

Crossing Over (In paradisum)
Texts by Daniel McDavitt and Samuel Stennett

Through winding roads my feet have trod,
A stranger far from home;
Yet still I know the hand of God
Has led this traveler on,
And soon I’ll join the pilgrim throng,
And rest from toil and care.

Across rolling hills and distant trails,
I’ve heard the old earth’s song;
The burning stars on shining nights
Have lit my path along;
And soon, as with all who journey on,
The wand’ring soul comes home.

No more "the road," no more the roaming,
No more restless cries;
For I am bound for fields aglow
With endless golden skies
Then comes a voice across the shore,
"Come, lay your burden down.”

I’m crossing over, I’m crossing over,
I’m crossing over that gentle river.

I am bound for the promised land, I am bound for the promised land;

When I shall reach that happy place, I’ll be forever blest,
For I shall see my Father’s face, and in his bosom rest.
Filled with delight my raptured soul would here no longer stay;
Though Jordan’s waves around me roll, fearless I’d launch away.