The Washington Chorus to perform a Michael W. Brinkman Christmas song

Michael W. Brinkman is pleased to announce that a four-part arrangement of one of his Christmas songs will be performed by The Washington Chorus (TWC). TWC will present its annual holiday concert “A Candlelight Christmas” as a virtual event. The concert was recorded without an audience at the Music Center at Strathmore and will stream today and Sunday. The first streaming was held on Friday evening. The program is one hour long and has no commercials. It will be streaming at 7:30 p.m. tonight and at 3 p.m. Sunday. Each performance is a pay-to-view. Tickets are $15 plus a $1.50 service fee. If you are interested in buying a ticket, enter the following into your web browser:

The Washington Chorus: A Candlelight Christmas.

Then, click on “The Washington Chorus Goes Virtual With Annual Christmas.”

Then, at end of first paragraph, click on “Tickets are $15 and are on sale here.” The new window offers tickets for each performance and gives instructions as how to access the program.

The program includes popular carols including Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night and Once in Royal David’s City, along with holiday favorites and new works, including the arrangement of Brinkman’s song, entitled “Preparing for the Prince of Peace.”

“I wrote its lyrics and composed its basic melody,” Brinkman said in an email. “I’m very much looking forward to listening to it. Eugene Rogers, who is both the Director of Choirs at the U of M as well as the artistic director of TWC, told me that he loves it.”

He looks forward to hearing feedback about his arrangement.

“If you ‘attend’ this program, I look forward to hearing your comments about my lyrics and melody and this arrangement,” Brinkman said in the email.

Email him at michiganmuse@hotmail.com.

“For those of you who are interested in the historical development of this song, here is a brief overview,” he said. “In 1970, shortly after we moved to Alpena, Michigan for me to be a Latin teacher, I initiated a weekly poetry feature in The Alpena News. It was entitled “Verse Diverse”. On December 10 of that year I published the poem entitled ‘Prince of Peace.’

“A few years later I composed a melody for the poem, so it became a song,” Brinkman explained. “And in December, I taught it to my Latin students so we could sing it along with other Christmas songs when we caroled at what was then Provincial House. Later, Alpena native Rob Voigt composed a four-part arrangement of the song.”

In 1975, Voigt’s arrangement was performed by the Alpena High School Choir at their annual Christmas concert, directed by choir teacher Bruce McCombie.

“Between 1975 and 2019 the song lay dormantBrinkman said. “But in November of 2019 I met with Eugene Rogers, Director of Choirs at the U of M. At that meeting, after I sang the solo version of my song, he fell in love with it. And he told me that he knew a brilliant arranger who could bring out the best elements of my wonderful melody.”

Brinkman summarized the arrangement.

“I commissioned this composer, J. David Moore, to arrange my work, which is now entitled ‘Preparing for the Prince of Peace.’ For this version I made a few minor changes and additions in wording. But the wording remains very close to the original poem ‘Prince of Peace’ as first published in The Alpena News.”

Brinkman added that he has been notified that starting in 2021 the music publisher Hal Leonard will offer the scores of this work worldwide.

The following Michael W. Brinkman poem was first published Dec. 10, 1970, in The Alpena News.

“Prince of Peace”

“Ting-a-ling-a-ling,” sing the sleigh bells ringing,

“Fa-la-la-la-la,” happy children singing,

Families decorating trees with bulbs and tinsel gleaming: Preparing for the Prince of Peace.

Gloria! Gloria in excelsis Deo!