Works

Written when the composer was a graduate student studying with Randall Thompson at Harvard. It was one of the pieces selected to represent America at the 20th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations — Convocation of Religions for Peace — in Herbst Hall, San Francisco.

An accessible work in five movements, dedicated to Roy Bogas.

Easy arrangements for high school and college glee clubs. Sung by the Treorchy Welsh Men’s Choir in its tour of America in the 1970s.

Written for and premiered by Metropolitan Opera baritone, Theodor Uppman.

Mechem’s first major chamber work and his first composition written during his three years in Vienna. Its premiere was given by the American Arts Trio in a concert at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, celebrating the 20th anniversary of its American Music Festival.

Written in Oakland CA for Lloyd Gowan, flutist, and other symphony musicians who met regularly for chamber music.

A short piece written to follow the final movement of Haydn’s Symphony 45 in F-sharp minor, in which the players show their insistence on receiving more pay and benefits by leaving before the symphony ends.

Five motets on Old Testament texts, each preceded by a plainsong recitative from Ecclesiastes.

A tale from the Apocrypha for large orchestra or chamber ensemble: three young men contest for the King’s favor by naming the strongest force on earth.

A suite of carols for soprano and chorus (SSA or SATB) with orchestra or solo harp or keyboard. Sung by hundreds of diverse choirs — community, professional, university, women’s, children’s and symphonic — for over half a century.

Josef Krips’ first performances of a work by a local composer received “an almost unprecedented outburst of curtain calls.” — (San Francisco Examiner)

The only American work to win an award in the Prix de Composition Musicale, Monaco, 1963.

Written for the composer’s eldest daughter, Katie, when she was nine, and dedicated to her teacher, Sylvia Jenkins. These short, easy pieces were the basis for the work, A Country Fair, for narrator and piano — later, for narrator and orchestra.

A musical duel — men vs. women — inspired by the humorous argument between two famous poets.

The first version of Mechem’s second symphony, in three movements, was premiered by Krips and the San Francisco Symphony in 1967. The composer and conductor agreed that it needed a fourth movement; Krips performed the revised version two years later.

Poems about spring by poets of five centuries. The composer represents each century with musical details typical of its time.

Poems by 19th and 20th century authors in the spirit of David and other pre- Christian psalmists. Non liturgical. Mixed Chorus and Organ.

A cycle of three pieces by English poets for TBB chorus and piano. Composed in London.

A bravura, virtuoso sonata, dedicated to William Corbett-Jones, who has played it on BBC and on tours to Europe and Asia.

Cantata for SATB chorus and chamber ensemble on the famous text by William Byrd, 1588: "Reasons briefely set downe by the author, to perswade every one to learne to sing." Includes instrumental dances of the period.

Each text is by a different poet and each piece is dedicated to a different mezzo. They range from ironical to dramatic to heart-breaking.

The text consists entirely of Italian musical terms which the chorus sings according to their meaning with hilarious results.

Seven poems by women, arranged in a cycle that tells the tumultuous journey of a woman who falls in love with the wrong man. She travels from love to despair and back to the joy of living.

The Jayhawk is a mythical bird that has come to be identified with Kansas, the composer's native state. Most of his legendary adventures are practical jokes, but he has also been depicted as a martial guardian of the range with miraculous powers of disguise and transformation.

Five pieces, published separately, but which form a cohesive cycle. They are based on American folk songs but are not “settings” or “arrangements.” The cycle has often been sung internationally as examples of American choral music.

Based upon Moliere’s timeless comedy, Mechem’s opera buffa has been performed in Austria, Canada, China, England, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Russia, Sweden and the United States.

Original hymn written for the opera "John Brown." It is also the first piece of the suite from the opera, "Songs of the Slave", q.v.

An SATB arrangement of Dorine’s aria in the opera Tartuffe: “Fair Robin I Love.” It’s a man-vs-woman dialogue in the “love-the-one-you’re-with” genre.

An original spiritual from John Brown and its suite, Songs of the Slave. “Dan-u-el” was first published as an octavo. It has received worldwide performances. For baritone & piano.

A setting of the words by Russell Schweickart, the first astronaut to walk in space. He describes the earth as seen from that distance – 'the earth is a whole, so beautiful, so small, so fragile.”

Songs drawn from several sources, each song mourning (or laughing) at the loss of a lover. The cycle includes the popular “Fair Robin I Love.” For soprano and piano.

Sacred texts using a few traditional Latin phrases together with the more extensive English versions of the text.

"Earth My Song," for mixed chorus and piano is a cycle of life, death, and rebirth on poems by the composer’s father, Kirke Field Mechem.

Five excerpts for mixed chorus, orchestra, baritone and soprano soloists from "John Brown." It includes the popular choral pieces “Blow Ye the Trumpet” and “Dan-u-el” as well as Frederick Douglass’s great “Speech.”

Variations on a rhythmic song, a spiritual and a ballad, each with a significant piano accompaniment.

Four diverse pieces based upon sound patterns in the text. They were originally conceived as “Songs without Words.”

Seven catches and rounds, parodies of the round-numbered birthdays from 10 to 70. A sample of the dozens of Mechem’s catches, canons and rounds.

Unaccompanied cycle: three pieces about birds as a metaphor for freedom. The poems are all powerful, especially “The Caged Bird,” the poem that inspired Maya Angelou’s book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."

“In the fifty years of Lyric’s history there have never been such prolonged standing ovations.” — Russell Patterson, founder and former general director of Lyric Opera Kansas City

Richard Sheridan’s brilliant play with its rich variety of characters has been Americanized. Bath, England, where royal titles were wedded to high society money, has been transmuted to Newport, RI about 1900 — “the Gilded Age.” This is not only a good American equivalent, but just the sort of flamboyant place and period that suits comic opera to a T.

This seven-minute piece is a gift which the composer presented to the University of Kansas in gratitude for its honorary doctorate.

The Befana legend is celebrated each year by Italian children and their families. Befana is an old woman who must fly on her broom through eternity, leaving gifts for the children on Epiphany night.

A story with music intended for children of elementary-school age (and their parents). It is based upon fifteen short piano vignettes, called Whims, which the composer wrote for Katie, his nine-year old daughter. Its total duration is about 28 minutes, of which fifteen are music that illustrates the story told by a narrator.

Pride and Prejudice follows Austen’s book in all its important characters and actions. The spirited courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth — who at first cannot abide one another — is the main story of the opera. They not only misjudge each other, but are both victims of their own pride and prejudices. Only after much sparring and indignant misunderstandings do they come to recognize their own faults and true feelings, and can forgive themselves and each other.