ABOUT ME

MY STORY

I recently retired, which has given me time to reflect on what music I would like to write as well as a bit of extra time to actually write it. My first big project is Annunciation Psalms and Chants. It is dedicated to the Sisters of Annunciation Monastery in Bismarck, North Dakota, who were my first music teachers and who continue to influence my life and faith. More on that later.

I remain active as a director, presenter, and arts advocate. This year marks my 34th as director of the Bismarck-Mandan Civic Chorus. I have been the musical director of twenty-five musical productions, and produced, directed and performed in a variety of productions benefiting local, regional, and international charitable organizations. I served on local, state, regional, and national boards, including the North Dakota Council on the Arts, Central Dakota Children’s Choir, Bismarck-Mandan Civic Chorus, National Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, and the American Choral Directors Association. I have presented papers and workshops at state, regional and national conferences, and continue to conduct honor choirs and present workshops throughout the Midwest.

My music has been performed world wide, including liturgical music in octavos and hymnals, and choral works regularly performed in concerts and festivals. Some highlights include Let Us Be Bread, O nata lux, By My Side, Prairie Wind, a virtual choir piece funded by the North Dakota Council on the Arts, Prairie Sketches for solo piano, Songs of the Prairies for choir and piano with texts by North Dakota pioneer women; a set of American folksongs for women’s choir, violin, and piano; and A Prairie Storm, and include commissions from the North Dakota Music Teachers’ Association, Bismarck-Mandan Civic Chorus, National Association of Pastoral Musicians, San Francisco Girls Chorus, Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra, Missouri Valley Chamber Orchestra, Central Dakota Children’s Choir, and the soundtracks of two documentaries by North Dakota Public Broadcasting, Prairie Churches and Homesteading.

For twelve years, I served as the Director of the Office of Worship for the Diocese of Bismarck. The reforms of the Second Vatican Council were still fresh, and there was a big learning curve during a time of great joy and energy from people in love with the Church and dedicated to serving through music. I founded a diocesan choir and led music at two episcopal installations and one episcopal ordination, the 75th and 100th anniversaries of the diocese, and a couple of significant jubilees. I also hosted two regional conventions of pastoral musicians, which led to my first published works with GIA Publications, and served on the national board of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions.

From 1994 to 2008, I was a Professor of Music and Department Chair at Bismarck State College. I became active with the American Choral Directors Association, serving as President of the North Dakota ACDA for two years and in a number of capacities on the state and regional levels over the years. 

From 2008-24, I had the good fortune to return to my alma mater as a Professor of Music and the Chair of the Music Department at the University of Mary, founded and sponsored by the Sisters of Annunciation Monastery. My choirs performed for state and regional conferences as well as toured regionally and internationally, including performances at Carnegie Hall in New York, St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel in Rome, La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and Lourdes.

My wife, Jenifer, and I have five wonderful children all of whom married up, giving us another five incredible children, and together creating eleven beautiful grandchildren with one more on the way as of this publication. Other than brief stints in Chicago, Baltimore, and Kansas City for schooling, I have lived in North Dakota all of my life, which has had a direct impact on my writing. I was blessed to attend the University of Mary in Bismarck, DePaul University in Chicago, the University of Notre Dame, and the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where I earned a Doctorate in Musical Arts in Choral Conducting. Some of my influential teachers include Bill Franke, Bruce Schwartz, Ethel Merker, Raymond Wilding-White, Robert Taft, Paul Rudy, Charles Robinson, and Eph Ehly.

Welcome to my music page! I have been writing music for over half a century in every form from classical to liturgical to commercial jingles, and this is my first journey into self-publishing and promoting. 

Selected Compositions by Tom Porter (expand for video links)

  • Annunciation Psalms and Chants includes Responsorial Psalms, Entrance Antiphons, and Communion Antiphons, composed as seasonal settings that musically tie together the Sundays and feasts during the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. The refrains are the official texts from the Lectionary for Mass and The Roman Missal, and the verses are from the liturgically approved Abbey Psalms and Canticles.

    The settings make use of contemporary harmonization with extended harmonies, added chords, and suspensions. These features should be treated gently, as in folk music. All of the chord symbols can be simplified to the basic triad form, removing added notes, bass notes, and suspensions, without affecting the accompaniment.

    The psalm and antiphon refrains are composed to be melodically accessible for congregational singing. In order to encourage the congregation’s participation, it is recommended that the refrains are sung in unison rather than in parts or with descants. The seasonal settings feature:

    • Shared musical motives, making the refrains singable and familiar from week to week.

    • Mostly stepwise melodies with a single climax tone; leaps are generally no more than thirds outlining triads.

    • The refrains are connected to the verses by mode with a common note that ends the verse and starts the refrain.

    • Mostly syllabic settings without syncopation.

    • Range confined to an octave or less, with a tessitura from E to A.

    • Refrains that stay within the mode without the use of accidentals.

    Parishes that prefer using a single psalm may replace the prescribed Sunday psalms with the seasonal refrain, using a single refrain with verses prescribed for each Sunday.

    Verses are sung with the freedom of spoken text; if possible sing each line as one phrase. Sing with a free, even tone and avoid creating a sense of meter or metrical accentuation.

    The psalm tones of the verses are the same throughout a season to assist the cantor/psalmist/choir in their familiarity with the music, and to express the continuity and character of the season.

    Verses may be sung in a variety of ways according to parish practice, for example by solo cantor or unison choir, perhaps alternating men/women on the verses; in four-part singing using the SATB parts; or by adapting to two-part or three-part singing, omitting parts as best suits the ensemble. When singing parts, take care to minimize dynamic changes on leaps (sing the second note of the leap softer) and sing dissonant notes gently, pulling them into the texture and allowing them to hover within the chord.

    ANTIPHONS/CHANTS

    Entrance and Communion Antiphons are provided for each Sunday and feast. They are composed using the form of responsorial psalms with a simple refrain to enable congregational participation, with verses as needed to accompany the entrance or communion procession sung by a cantor or choir, and a doxology that may be added as a final verse. The settings incorporate the Entrance Antiphon and Communion Antiphon texts from the Roman Missal. When the length of the antiphon text may be difficult as a congregational refrain, an approved portion of the full text is set. Parishes can adapt the format as best suits their needs, from singing only the antiphon text to singing the refrain with alternating verses as a processional.

    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    Annunciation Psalms and Chants is dedicated to the Sisters of Annunciation Monastery in Bismarck, North Dakota. The Sisters of Annunciation Monastery were my first teachers and my first piano teachers. They have continued to influence my life and my spirituality, especially as a student at the University of Mary, one of their sponsored institutions, and in my work with the Diocese of Bismarck and at the University of Mary. I am forever grateful for their witness of faith and prayer as well as their friendship.

  • SATB, SAB and SA versions with piano
    Individual Artist Fellowship with the North Dakota Council on the Arts

    Watch Prairie Wind

  • SAB with piano
    Commissioned and premiered by Dickinson High School, ND, in honor of Michael Stevenson, director.

  • SATB with piano and congregational refrain (see music at Choristers' Guild)
    American Composers Forum Faith Partners Fellowship, Owatonna, MN

    Watch video of Taste and See

  • SATB with organ, brass (see music and listen to audio recording at Choristers Guild)
    Commissioned by Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Saint Cloud, MN

  • SATB and TTBB versions with piano four hands (See music and listen to recording at Hal Leonard Publications)
    Commissioned by the Central Dakota Children’s Choir, Bismarck, ND
    TTBB version premiered by ND ACDA Men's Honor Choir, Dr. Eph Ehly, conductor

  • SATB with piano (see music with audio sample at Hal Leonard Publications)
    Commissioned in memory of Anne Adair White and premiered by Williston High School, ND, Katie Rooke, director

    Watch video at Sing, Laugh, Love

  • SATB with piano (See music and listen to audio sample at Heritage Music Press)
    Commissioned in memory of William J. Schmidt and premiered by Saint Mary’s Central High School, Bismarck, ND, Vicky R. Boechler, director

    Watch video of Lux aeterna

  • Soundtrack, Prairie Public Broadcasting Documentary

    Watch video of Homesteading

  • SATB a cappella (see music at Lorenz Music)
    Commissioned and premiered by Grand Forks Master Chorale, ND, Joshua Bronfman, director

    Watch video of Prairie Storm

  • SATB with piano (see music and listen to audio sample at Heritage Music Press)
    Commissioned and premiered by Hettinger High School, ND, Gina Joyce, director

    Watch video of Die Engel

  • SSA with piano, violin (See music and listen to an audio recording at Alliance Publications)
    Commissioned and premiered by the San Francisco Girls Chorus, CA, Dr. Susan McMane, director

    Watch video of Ten Thousand Miles

  • SSA and TTB versions with piano, violin (See music and listen to audio recording at Alliance Publications)
    Commissioned and premiered by the San Francisco Girls Chorus, CA, Dr. Suasan McMane, director

    Watch video of Cripple Creek

  • SATB with piano (see music and listen to audio recording at Heritage Music Press)

    Watch video of O Nata Lux

  • SATB with piano, flute (see music and listen to audio recording at Lorenz Music)

    Watch video of Saw You Never in the Twilight

  • SATB with piano (see music and listen to audio sample at GIA Publications)

    Watch video of Softly and Tenderly

  • SATB with orchestra
    Lewis and Clark Signature Event commissioned by the Central Dakota Children’s Choir

  • SSATB with piano,
    Named in Top Honors category of the Oregon Bach Festival competition, “Waging Peace through Singing”

  • This is my first published choral composition, commissioned by Bel Canto of Central Dakota Children’s Choir, directed by Teri Fay. Publication edited by Mary Lynn Lightfoot. Two-part treble with piano (see music and listen to audio recording at Heritage Music Press)

    Watch video at What Color Is the Music

  • SSSAA a cappella in five movements
    Commissioned by the Bismarck State College Foundation

  • Vocal solo with piano

  • SATB with piano ( see music and listen to audio recording at Roger Dean Music)
    Commissioned and premiered by Bismarck-Mandan Civic Chorus, ND
    Performed on "A Prairie Home Companion” by the University of Minnesota Choir, Kathy Romey, director

    Watch video of White Promise

  • SATB with piano (Roger Dean Music)

  • SATB with piano (See music at Lorenz Music)

    Watch a video of Snow and Summer

  • SATB with piano (see music and listen to audio preview at GIA Publications)
    Commissioned by the Diocese of Bismarck for the Installation of the Most Reverend Paul Zipfel

    Watch video of We Remember, We Believe

  • Orchestra
    Commissioned and premiered by the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra

  • SATB with piano, brass, handbells (GIA Publications)
    Commissioned and premiered by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians

  • Piano solo
    Commissioned by the North Dakota Music Teachers Association

  • Woodwind quintet
    Commissioned by the North Dakota Music Teachers Association

  • Communion Song written for my wedding (See music and listen to audio preview at GIA Publications)

    Watch video of Let Us Be Bread

  • Wedding Solo (See music and listen to audio preview at GIA Publications)

    Watch video of By My Side

Explore My Compositions -

Explore My Compositions -

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