Patricia Long’s music bridges the classical and the contemporary. Whether writing for piano, small ensemble, choir, or orchestra, she brings the power of her musical erudition to compositions that range from shorter pieces to large-scale choral and orchestral works.
In 1998, her Mass in E-flat “Millennium” was released on CD. This Marathon recording features the Grammy-winning Texas Boys Choir, along with the chamber choir Laudate and the Westlake Chamber Ensemble. Millennium is the first polyphonic setting of the High Mass (other than Requiems) in nearly four centuries to use all ten major items of a plenary Mass. The work premiered to a standing ovation in April 2000 at Oak Hill United Methodist Church in Austin.
Her Magnificat in G Major also enjoyed a successful premiere at the same venue in December 2001 as part of a special Advent service.
In March 2004, Schola Cantorum of Austin, under the direction of Barry Scott Williamson, did a concert tour of Germany and Austria that included the European premiere of two of Ms. Long’s choral pieces. The select 40-voice choir performed in Vienna, Leipzig, Salzburg, and Dachau. The two choral works — the “Sanctus” movement from her Mass in E-flat “Millennium” and her more recently composed “How Beautiful Upon the Mountains” — were part of a program of music by American and British composers. “Sanctus” received further performances in Austin and in Wales in 2006.
In April 2005, Northeast Ohio’s renowned Master Singers, Inc. Chorale premiered one of Patricia Long’s shorter works, “Quam pulchri super montes,” in two concerts within the Trinity Lutheran Organ series. MSI’s distinguished founder and artistic director, Dr. J.D. Goddard, conducted. “Quam pulchri super montes” is a moving hymn with Latin text drawn from Isaiah 52.
In December 2008, her “O magnum mysterium” was premiered in Akron, Ohio, by MSI and received a second performance a week later in Cleveland Heights, also under the baton of Dr. Goddard. MSI has commissioned another piece, “Jubilate Deo,” for the 2009 holiday season.
In addition to her classical compositions, Ms. Long has written numerous songs. When not composing music, she also writes poetry and short stories. In 2002, she published a collection of these writings in a small book called Words and she has recently completed a follow-up volume, Falling Up in Three Parts,, scheduled for publication in summer 2009.