Choral

All music is available for purchase. Please contact the publisher's website or email me at dwitte@mac.com to order.

Open My Heart   Available from NPH OL-289021E
Written in 2005 for a chapel service at Winnebago Lutheran Academy. Audio Sample (mp3)

This Little Light of Mine  Available from NPH OL-286090
Written for a WLA faculty meeting devotion, believe it or not! Audio Sample (mp3)

So Many Things  Available from NPH OL-286094E
Written for and performed on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, (Season 4, Episode 8, Broadcast Nov. 19, 2006) for the family of Matt Koepke. It uses a phrase that Matt Koepke used to say all the time to his family, "There's a lot of things to think about, but there's nothing to worry about" and a passage for the Bible which explains why there is nothing ever to worry about: John 3:16, "For God so loved the world..." Want to know more behind the scenes info? Read "The rest of the story" behind the song. Audio Sample (mp3)

Be Still My Soul (FINLANDIA) Available from NPH OL-286059
SAB, piano and optional violin. Written for the 1995 Graduating Class of WLA. Audio Sample (MIDI)

Love in Christ is Strong and Living (DOROTHY) Available from NPH OL-286004
Written for my wedding in 1991 during a course by Richard Hillert in Ensemble Writing and Arranging at Concordia, River Forest, IL (now Concordia University, Chicago) during the summer of 1990. This is the first piece of music that I ever submitted for publishing and it is the first piece that I wrote that was published.  Audio Sample (MIDI)

I revised stanza four for the wedding of Josh and Becky Schermerhorn on Aug. 17, 2007 to include a flute descant and a more ambitious organ setting. Stanza Four sample (PDF)

Jesus, God's Gift to You (Theme Song)  Christmas Service Kit available from NPH OL-180384 Theme song written for Judy Lauber for Faith, Fond du Lac's 2005 K-8 Christmas Eve service.   Recording performed by the 2005 5th grade class from Faith, Fond du Lac, WI (my son is one of the singers!).

This is My Will (2008) EMLY/SUANTRAI
SAB, piano, guitar, bass, drums, congregation. Written for the WLA Viking Choir for the 2008 WLA Irish Hymn Festival

Be Thou My Vision (2008) SLANE
SATB, brass, organ, congregation. Arranged for all WLA Choirs for the 2008 Irish Hymn Festival.

Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands (2007) CHRIST LAG IN TODESBANDEN
SATB, brass, timp., cym, org., congregation. First written for the senior choir of St. Paul's, Tomah, WI for the dedication of their Wicks organ rebuild (Easter, 1993). Revised for all WLA Choirs in the 2007 WLA Hymn Festival.  Using Martin Luther's original hymn tune, it would be an appropriate setting for celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation in 2017!

The Water of Life (2010)
Based on Rev 22:17, the story of the woman at the well from John 4 & 7, and Luther's Baptism: Third, this piece was the 2009-2010 theme song of the WLA Association. It is a verse and refrain structure, written for piano and voice (congregation can sing the refrain) with optional 2 part or SATB choir.

I Watch in Hope for the Lord (2008)
Based on Micah 7:7, the WLA Association theme passage for the 2008-2009 school year, "I Watch in Hope for the Lord" uses a paraphrase of Psalm 32 in its verses to become not just a song of hope, but also an alternate setting of Psalm 32 which could be used for liturgical worship.  Click here for a bulletin insert (5.5"x8.5") to be used for congregational singing of the refrain with a choir or soloist.

O Christ, the Same (2008) LONDONDERRY AIR
SATB a cappella. Text by Timothy Dudley-Smith. Arranged for the WLA Traveling Choir for the 2008 WLA Irish Hymn Festival

Alive by Death (Dec. 1998/rev. 2008) FLIGHT OF THE EARLS/CLONMEL
2-part, trumpet, opt. handbells, piano or organ. Written at the request of my brother, Pastor Daniel Witte, for a hymn text competition. It ended up being the theme song/hymn for the 1999 WELS Christian Education Week celebration. A new descant and SAB setting was added for the WLA Freshman Choir in the 2008 WLA Irish Hymn Festival.

As I Pray, Dear Jesus, Hear Me (2008) WERDE MUNTER
I started every choir rehearsal of the 2007-2008 school year with a Bible passage which talked about singing. At the end of every devotion, we sang stanza three of the hymn "Speak, O Savior; I Am Listening" (Christian Worship 283). I have always been fascinated with J.S. Bach's use of the WERDE MUNTER chorale in his Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring because he set the chorale in a triple meter rather than the duple meter most Lutherans are used to singing the hymn in. So, I decided to combine the modern duple meter chorale with Bach's famous theme in the key of F for and easy and obvious connection with the setting of the WERDE MUNTER chorale in modern hymnals.

All Night, All Day (2004)
SATB a cappella. Written for all WLA Choirs (Freshman, Viking, and Traveling) for the 2004 St. Michael and All Angels festival chapel service.

A City Radiant as a Bride (2001) PHILADELPHIA
SATB, organ. Composed in commemoration for the nine years of service of my brother, Pastor Daniel A. Witte, to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Downers Grove, IL. This setting is an original hymn tune melody for the Timothy Dudley-Smith poem. (cf. Original Hymns)

The Message (2000)
SSAATTBB Written for the WLA Traveling Choir for the 2000 Christmas Concert.

I Bind Unto Myself Today (K. Lee Scott, arr. Witte for SATB)
I've loved this piece ever since I heard it on a K. Lee Scott recording, but it was only set for TTBB and organ.  I reset it for SATB, brass quartet, and organ for the 2008 WLA Irish Hymn Festival.

Rise, Shine, You People! (7/21/96)
Stanza Two, SAB a cappella. Composed for the 1996 WELS National Conference on Worship, Music, and the Arts (Carthage College, Kenosha, WI). I was directing a choir for a service in that conference which introduced Marty Haugen's setting of Morning Praise. I composed this setting for that choir, but it was not used for the conference.