Music Notes 3-29-26

This week we have the unique opportunity to debut 2 world premieres – our anthem and our

offertory, both of which were written specifically for us and specifically for this Palm Sunday.

The musical Godspell was originally written by John-Michael Tebelak as his master’s thesis for

Carnegie Mellon University. The original production was performed in 1970 by members of the

Carnegie Mellon Drama school and was supposed to include Ted Danson, who had to drop out

due to a case of Bell’s Palsy. The show was brought to the attention of Angela Lansbury’s

brother Edgar by Carnegie Mellon alum Charles Haid, who wanted to transfer the show to off-

Broadway. Eventually, the producers hired Stephen Schwartz, another Carnegie Mellon alum, to

re-score the show. The only song from the original show that survived was By My Side, and the

show opened at the Cherry Lane Theatre in May of 1971. Later on that year, most of the original

cast came to Los Angeles to open the show at the Mark Taper Forum. The show was then

adapted for Hollywood and released as a movie in 1973, with John-Michael Tebelak writing the

screenplay. In addition to Ted Danson, the musical has had a number of familiar names attached

to it, including Jeremy Irons, who played John the Baptist/Judas in the London production, and

Paul Schaffer, of the Letterman Show fame, playing keyboards and conducting the first

Broadway production.

Stephen Schwartz is a composer and lyricist for Broadway musicals and movies. As a composer,

he’s written hit musicals like Godspell, Pippin and Wicked. As a lyricist, he’s provided lyrics for

movies such as Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Prince of Egypt and Enchanted.

He’s won 3 Oscars, 3 Grammys, 5 Drama Desk Awards and has been nominated for 6 Tonys. He

was born in New York City in 1948, studied piano and composition at Julliard and graduated

from Carnegie Mellon University with a BFA in Drama.

I began work on Prepare Ye The Way Of The Lord while on vacation last summer at a cabin in

the mountains. The song seemed like a great theme for Palm Sunday. The problem is that the

whole song is only 8 bars long – literally 15 seconds of music. The play and the movie both

stretch that 15 seconds into 3 minutes by singing the same 8 bars over and over again, so I began

looking for something to add to it. I found a reference to another song by the same title by

Ronald Gollner but could only find the lyrics. A search of YouTube revealed a single recording

of the song as an instrumental on a keyboard, with the lyrics in subtitles. I used this interesting

song as a bridge and the rest is history.

When our marvelous tenor section leader Kirk joined us last fall, he told us that his wife, Jessica,

was a soprano and a composer. I invited him to bring some of her music to us, and we were able

to do a trio for soprano, alto and tenor for one of our offertories. She offered to write a piece for

us for Palm Sunday, and Hosanna! is the result.

Jessica Berns-Garner is an opera singer, composer, and voice teacher. Ms. Berns-Garner grew up

in Los Angeles, where she began singing, playing piano, and composing music at an early age.

She studied Vocal Arts Performance at California State University, Northridge, where she studied

voice with Dr. Deanna Murray, and it was then that she met her future husband, Kirk Garner.

Graduating in 2013, she went on to begin performing with local opera companies, learning a

variety of roles, some favorites including covering and performing Phoebe in Yeoman of the

Guard,  covering Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, singing Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and singing

Countess Stasi in The Gipsy Princess.  In 2022, she began studying voice with Jessica Tivens-

Schneiderman, and afterwards she began to accept fuller roles, covering Blanche in Les Dialogue

des Carmélites, performing Second Maid in Daphne, and covering the title role in Anna Bolena.

 She continues to work and maintain a private voice studio in Los Angeles.  Her current projects

include singing Parasya in Sorochyntsi Fair by Mussorgsky ​with Independent Opera Company

and continuing to compose.