Hymn to Saint Raphael

After the success of my first choral anthem, I became highly sought after for my prodigious skills in composition… and then I woke up. Well, I actually did wake up to an affirming email from one of St. John Vianney’s philosophy professors, Fr. Robert Vallee. He sent an attachment of a poem that he had written about the archangel, St. Raphael, and asked me if I would be willing to collaborate by setting it to music. I was flattered and agreed to try my hand at another person’s text.

Admittedly, I did not know much about Raphael, he only appears by name in the Book of Tobit. Thankfully, Fr. Vallee’s poem packed quite a hagiography into three stanzas. The only problem I ran into was that of the meter. He wrote in an irregular meter that was beautiful to read but difficult to set to music. I needed something with a lot of notes in fast order. When reading the poem one day over Winter break, I had an epiphany. An old tune I wrote years ago came to mind. It was fast and clumsy, so I threw it out and never looked back. But now, hearing it paired with the text, it somehow fit the meter–provided a few words were changed here and there, which Fr. Vallee was gracious enough to oblige.

In writing the “Hymn to Saint Raphael,” I came to appreciate the service of setting the words of others to my music. There is a beautiful spirit of collaboration if the poet is living or deceased. As the composer, I am able to reach into the past and unearth whatever I deem appropriate, even if the author didn’t think much of their work. Likewise, old melodies that I considered no good may take on a new life when serving the purpose of glorifying sacred text.

There is value in everything you create, no matter the initial quality you judge it to possess. If I hadn’t given my old tune a second chance, then the “Hymn to Saint Raphael” would probably never have been written. The song itself has since become a go-to favorite among the ensembles who have sung it. I’ll admit that I reveled in the song being dubbed a “sacred banger.”