‘Not all dreams die’

For the past 20 years, Rachel Oxley has been living a normal life in Greenfield. She works in a number of fields, both for the Adair County Abstract Company and as a legal secretary. Also a wife and mother of two, Oxley has her hands full. However, in the background, her creative side was begging to be let back out.

Oxley’s journey with music begin at a young age. The daughter of a pastor, she said her whole family was involved in creating music at church.

“I’ve loved music longer than I can remember. I just kind of grew up in a musical family,” Oxley said. “I started taking piano lessons when I was in second grade. In fifth grade, I started learning the flute.”

This passion continued into her teen years. When she was around 15 years old, she made her first attempt at composing music.

“I first tried my hand at composing mostly just out of curiosity. I had just watched ‘Singing in the Rain’ or one of those old classic musicals, and I just thought it might be kind of fun to write your own music,” Oxley said. “I sat down at the piano and tried, just messed around and started writing little stuff for the piano, nothing big.”

Oxley’s true interest in composing grew her junior year of high school when she took a music theory class. Later in the year, everyone in her class had to write a short composition and then share with the class. Many stuck to small pieces, items like short commercial jingles and the like. However, Oxley created a full composition.

“I went last, playing a piano solo I had written. When I finished, our teacher said, ‘Wasn’t that warm?’ My music had touched him, and it resonated with my classmates, too,” Oxley said. “I was asked to perform it as part of our spring band and choir concert as well as at a school assembly. Soon after that, I decided to tackle writing for concert band.”

Oxley’s talent for composing music was obvious, something she decided to take to the college level. She attended Illinois Wesleyan University, pursuing a Bachelor of Music in music composition.

While she first started, Oxley focused on instrumental music. However, after joining the university choir, she began writing choral music as well.

“There’s just nothing quite like singing and making beautiful music with a room full of people — people who come from all sorts of cultural, ethnic, political, social and religious backgrounds but come together with a unified voice and sing as one," Oxley said. “It’s truly special, and that had a huge impact on me and on the music I write.”

Now, a majority of the music Oxley writes is choral. Though both are forms of composing, she said the focus is different when writing for a choir versus a band.

“Think of the voice leading a lot more in vocal music, what feels comfortable to sing. You press the right key or valve and blow air into the instrument; theoretically, you get the right note whether your ear can hear it and anticipate what it should be or not,” Oxley said. “It’s different for the performer, so you think of that when you’re writing for them. Would they be able to hear this part? Can they pick it out? Does it make sense? Is it comfortable?”

Though she was fully immersed in composing music when at college, this passion got hidden after graduation. In 2005, Oxley moved to the Creston area to help her aging grandparents. What was originally a temporary move turned into the rest of her life as she settled in Adair County with her husband and began a family.

While she wanted to continue working with music, Oxley had a hard time finding time.

“The years when my girls were babies and toddlers were especially difficult as there just wasn’t time — quiet time where no one else needed my attention — to sit and create,“ Oxley said. ”After several years of little or no composing, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever write again, and that was pretty discouraging. Many people in my daily life had no idea I compose because I just didn’t even talk about it anymore."

However, a project from college had been nagging at her. A collection of four nativity-themed choral pieces, “Song for a Newborn King” started with a song written in college, “Sacred Lullaby.” Over the following years, Oxley began slowly adding to the collection.

Work was slow, with Oxley stealing moments in the middle of the night to write and compose. She finished the second, “Now the Night is Over,” in 2011, followed by “Joseph’s Song” in 2013. Though three songs were done, Oxley knew a fourth was needed to complete it. Finally, in 2019, she rounded off the collection with “Angelic Proclamation of Messiah’s Birth.”

Rather than finish the compositions and put them aside for another day, Oxley contacted her college choir director.

“Dr. Ferguson, I asked if he would look at the scores and offer some feedback and maybe consider programming them,” Oxley said. “He graciously agreed to look at them, and he programmed them on IWU’s 2021 Christmas Choral Concert.”

More than 15 years after graduating, Oxley returned to Illinois Wesleyan University to witness the choir perform her music.

“I was able to be in attendance, and it was such an overwhelming experience—so many years’ sporadic work culminating in a masterful performance at my alma mater," Oxley said. “I didn’t know if this was a beautiful ending or a new beginning to my composition journey, but I was hopeful it was the start of something good.”

As soon as she returned home after the trip, she penned a poem explaining her hopes, something she later turned into another composition.

“Not all dreams die. Some blow away the dust of time, And kiss the memories alive.

(Not all dreams die.) Some ache with patient longing Until the time is right.

Not all dreams die."

It was after this Oxley decided to intentionally carve out time to start composing again, using her previous method of stealing time while the rest of the family was asleep.

“It would mean less time wasted in front of a screen, less sleep many nights (as it’s so much easier to compose when the house is quiet and dark and everyone else is sleeping), and probably a messier house,” Oxley said. “It’s been an investment in time and also money.”

She’s made several demo recordings of her pieces for marketing, something she’s said has been worthwhile for both time and money.

“My music has been performed in multiple states and countries over the past few years,” Oxley said. Some of those locations include California, Washington, Minnesota and as far away as the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Indonesia.

One of her compositions even won the Iowa Choral Directors Association’s 2024 Music Composition Competition.

“It has been rewarding to see my music travel further than I ever have or likely ever will and to make connections with people I otherwise would never meet but now have thanks to music,” Oxley said.

She said her music brings her closer to more than just her listeners.

“Composing music, for me, is a deeply meaningful and often worshipful process,” Oxley said. “My music is intertwined with my faith, and the creative process is one of deep communion with my Creator.”

This connection can be seen not only through the compositions, but also through the topics found in her lyrics. While some lyrics are from classic hymns, she also writes plenty of her own.

“I find inspiration in many things, from poetry to the natural world to family relationships [’Lullaby to a Childhood’], as well as my response to tragedies,” Oxley said. “I’ve written in response to the war in Ukraine, the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting [’Breath’], childhood cancer, suicide/mental health crises [’You Are Loved (Don’t Lose Heart)’]. I write original lyrics for some of my songs but also enjoy reading poetry, hunting for texts that jump out at me that would make great lyrics.”

Her spiritual connection takes spotlight in her Christmas series.

“‘Joseph’s Song’ is the one that has been kind of favored of that group has been performed more. And that piece I wrote when my oldest daughter was probably just a year or two old. I gained new perspective just as a new parent,” Oxley said. “You don’t often think Joseph’s perspective and the whole narrative, but his position was pretty unique and maybe awkward, difficult, challenging, and just thinking, what would it have been like to be given this life calling that you didn’t really ask for or want or feel prepared for.”

Outside of writing and composing, Oxley has made sure to include music in her everyday life. She serves on a music committee for the Greater Greenfield Community Foundation and helped form a community children’s choir, Voices Raised, for which she serves as the assistant director and accompanist.

“It’s such a joy to encourage and invest in the musical formation of the next generation of young musicians in our community,” Oxley said. “I passionately believe that music is for everyone, and it can enrich each person’s life, whether they engage by listening, singing, playing an instrument, songwriting, composing or teaching music. Music is a lifelong gift to be enjoyed.”

Megan Barrett, the director of the children’s choir, said Oxley’s passion for music is evident.

“Her love of music is easy to see, as is her heart for creating musical and artistic opportunities for youth in that community,” Barrett said.

During their time with the children’s choir, Barrett said they’ve used Oxley’s compositions for variations of childhood classics.

“She shared one of her compositions with me last fall and we ended up using it with the youth choir. The piece was titled Little Star and was a variation on the familiar “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. The kids enjoyed learning it and singing it, and the audience loved it as well," Barrett said. “I also used one of her choral compositions with my church choir last year.”

Though she’s already helping the younger generations learn a love for music, Oxley also has advice for those looking to get into the composing world.

“One thing that I find really inspiring is live music. There’s just nothing like being actually at a performance of any kind. There’s just a different energy when you feel it, when you’re there,” Oxley said. “And then just try it. You never know until you try and work with people, work with live musicians as much as you can. Get the feedback, find out what’s playable, what’s likable, what doesn’t work, from people who are actually using it.”

Those interested in performing her music can contact Oxley on Facebook at Rachel Oxley (Rachel Marx) or via email at raoxley11@gmail.com.