And God Said

Ron will send out a licensing application and price sheet for full score, vocal score, and instrumental parts. If you’ve already purchased a full perusal score, that amount will be applied as a full credit to the score-and-parts package rate you select. ALL SCORES AND PARTS WILL BE SENT AS .pdf FILES TO BE PRINTED AT YOUR LOCATION.

Biographies

RON MELROSE (Composer) has spent the last twenty-eight years in New York City, making music in theatres and churches. His Broadway credits include music direction (Imaginary Friends, Scarlet Pimpernel, Sinatra at Radio City Music Hall), dance and/or vocal arranging (Sweet Smell of Success, Jekyll & Hyde, Perfectly Frank, The Act, Marilyn: An American Fable, Woman of the Year, Cabaret), and conducting (Smile, Annie, The Rink). As a composer and lyricist, Ron’s credits include Superdimensional Microbabes (an upcoming anime-based musical), Fourtune (Off-Broadway), The Silver Swan (National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship), two Harvard Hasty Pudding shows (Tots in Tinseltown, Bewitched Bayou), a Sonata for Flute and Piano, one pop hit (Disco Clone), and a variety of songs for cabarets, club acts, and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” His church music experience includes a ten-year music directorship at All Angels' Episcopal Church, NYC, where he formed and directed a gospel choir from the homeless community served by the church. Ron's liturgical compositions (in addition to And God Said...) include three theatrical projects available on CD (The Missing Peace, Songs I Won’t Be Singing, and Early One Morning), a gospel-based Requiem, and a number of choral anthems, offertories, and settings of service music. His formal education includes degrees in philosophy (Harvard) and choral conducting (Westminster Choir College), and his family includes Alexandra and Jake

Jeff Barker (Director), MFA, University of South Dakota. Directing and Playwriting. Dozens of Jeff’s plays have been produced in this country and overseas. His play Kin won the 2002 Iowa Playwrights Competition. His 9/11 based drama, “September Bears” appeared Off-Broadway in 2003. Jeff’s plays are online at: www.nwciowa.edu/barkerplays

The history of And God Said

Bible scholar Dr. Tom Boogaart says that this full-length musical is actually a series of ten ancient plays – stories crafted in dramatic form, intended from their inception for performance. The stories included in And God Said are taken verbatim from several early Bible books, using the King James Version.

These ten each stand alone, but together they form a powerful musical and narrative journey. Here are some of the responses from the first version opening in April, 2004:

“And God Said is far more amazing, inspiring, challenging, profound…than I ever could have imagined.”

- Nancy Franken, theatre patron

“Outstanding! And God Said was a re-awakening to the Bible stories of my youth.”

- Erik Hoekstra, college Board member

“And thank you for And God Said. I heard people say, ‘I’m going to go home and read the script. I think I’ve been missing something.’”

- Professor Carl Vandermeulen

“I called my wife at midnight to talk to her about And God Said. I just had to tell everyone I knew about this wonderful production and how it affects you as a person in the theatre.”

- Craig Ihnen, Executive Director of Iowa

High School Speech Association

“What a beautiful and remarkable show. I have seen And God Said four times and I get something different out of it every time. You have created something more wonderful than I could have ever imagined.” - Micah Trapp, college student

“There were just some of the most beautiful points (Abraham kissing Sarah on the cheek, baby Moses being breast fed). It just all hit me, and it was overwhelming. It made the Bible real to me.”

- Rebekah Edwards, college student

The 14 songs of And God Said

The text is the Bible. The text becomes song in the following ways:

The CANTORS sing (or lead the cast or even the audience in singing) worship songs which serve as transitions between the stories. The text of these songs is usually taken directly from the story which is about to be enacted. This category of song includes:

“These Are the Generations” (Prologue)

“And She Called His Name Moses”

“Samson’s Song”

“What Man is He”

“Elisha’s Song”

“O Lord, Open Thou My Lips”

“For Who is Able to Judge”

“Abraham’s Song”

“All the Nations of the Earth” (Benediction)

Whenever God speaks, these sections are sung by the CANTORS.

“Leaving Home”

“The Broken Heart of David”

“Solomon and the Harlots”

“Sarah Laughs”

“The Binding of Isaac”

One of the stories we selected is a famous battle song (Judges 5: 2-31), and Ron has set the entire original text to music, using seven singers.

“The Battle Song of Deborah”

Cast requirements

And God Said can be performed with an ensemble cast of 12 singer/actors (6 males, 6 females), and one small boy. Or you may use many more performers if you wish.

The Score

Full orchestration and individual parts are available for:

two synthesizers, two percussionists, and a variety of treble and bass lines to be divided among acoustic instruments, allowing any given production to utilize available musicians (the original production assigned these lines to an ensemble consisting of flute, two oboes, clarinet, violin, trumpet, bassoon, horn, trombone, and cello).