A few weeks ago, I posted the video of “A Christian’s Farewell.” I just got the professional recording of the performance at Baylor, and it sounds great. Listen to the MP3 on headphones and you’ll hear the piano, solo, children’s choir, fiddle, string quartet and barbershop quartet in all their stereophonic glory. Better yet, program the piece the next time you host a concert featuring piano, solo, children’s choir, fiddle, string quartet and barbershop quartet so that you can hear it in all its live acoustical glory!
Category: Arrangement
Update 10/1/20: Sheet music for the final version of this song can be downloaded here.
Bruce Benedict is at it again. Last time it was a collection of songs based on the Apostles’ Creed. This time he’s assembling a group of musicians to compose and record songs for Pentecost. I have a real affinity for the Gregorian chant Veni Creator Spiritus, so I chose to contribute an updated version of this hymn to the project. Wikipedia has a good overview that includes the Latin, chant notation, an English translation, and an audio sample. CHeck out the original, then take a look at my first draft PDF or listen to an MP3 of me singing it directly into my laptop. As you can see, my version keeps the original chant melody intact, provides a new English translation from the Latin, and adds a refrain–“O Holy Spirit, come!”
Now I need your help before I begin recording. One of the difficulties I had was trying to wrangle the flowing, asymmetrical rhythms of the chant into a regular metered pattern. I chose 3/8 to give me the most flexibility of phrasing, but am still not entirely satisfied with how that plays out in measure 6 and 16. Is the tied pick up too fussy? How about the key signature? I’ve put it in E, but it really works better with an A drone. Should I put it in A? I sort of like the way it floats between the keys of A and E–it feels more chant-like to me–but maybe I’m just being stupid. And the translation? Anything you’d change? I like how each verse gives a name for the Spirit at the beginning, and am generally pleased with the rest of the text, but would appreciate any feedback you have on it.
Let’s make this better and then I’ll get to work on the final recording!
My latest commissioned composition, “The Christian’s Farewell,” was premiered Saturday night in Waco, Texas in the “Southern Harmony” Concert at Baylor University’s Armstrong Browning Library. The musicians did a lovely job! You can see the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KDyiU3a3LM.
Check out videos from the whole concert here: http://elsalvadormusical.blogspot.com/2011/05/southern-harmonyconcert-at-baylor.html
From the Dust You Shall Raise Us Up (Solo, SATB Choir and Piano)
I posted a song at the beginning of Lent called From the Dust You Shall Raise Us Up, with verses taken from Psalm 103. Here it is again, this time arranged as a choral anthem: MP3, PDF.
Categories
Odds and Ends, part 3
The Best Book to Read Is the Bible: MP3, PDF
At Church of the Servant we have a Basic English Service geared toward the many refugees and immigrants in the community who need a place to worship, but are still learning English. It’s a wonderful, collaborative effort between lifelong and recent Americans. One of my BES friends told me he’d like to sing a song that he learned at church in Nepal. He sang it into my mini-recorder and I transcribed it and made a simple arrangement that will allow our pianists to lead it.
A bit of internet searching seems to indicate that The Best Book is something like The B-I-B-L-E, but not as popular. Lots of bloggers refer to it, but I couldn’t find any music or recordings. I still have some questions about how the song goes, so if you know this song please contact me and let me know if I got it right!
I feel bad that I haven’t updated my blog in over a week. On the other hand, my last post was the day before Palm Sunday, and you can’t really blame a church musician for blogging less during Holy Week. Though I’m not working on any big projects, my production hasn’t completely stalled. Over the next few days I’ll post some odds and ends from the last week. Here’s the first:
String arrangement of Michael Joncas’ Psalm 118/This Is the Day. (MP3)
Every Easter the lectionary calls for Psalm 118 as the Psalm of the day. As always, I try to find just the right setting for the musicians I have. In the past I’ve done Psalm 118s by Taize (this year’s plan B), Patrick Geary (exciting, but I’ve done it too much recently), Lawler/Guiao (needs 2 trumpets; I had strings), and me (too hard). I came across Joncas’ bouncy “This Is the Day” and decided to give it a try. Since I had string ensemble available, I wrote a quick arrangement that had a number of options I could use on the fly. During the Easter rehearsal, we decided that recorder melody against pizzacato string accompaniment would make a great intro. The strings come back again on each congregational refrain with descant.
In a previous post, I tantalized you with the premiere date of The God of Abraham Praise. That date has come and gone, and now I’m pleased to present you with a recording from the event. Without further ado, I give you the Calvin College Orchestra playing The God of Abraham Praise.
I’ve written before about my love of the hymn What Wondrous Love Is This. That previous post included a stripped down recording of me singing the song, accompanied by guitar. This time I’m posting a more complex arrangement for piano. We used it last Sunday at COS as an accompaniment for congregational singing. After seeing how hard my pianist had to work (and hearing how sick of hearing it his wife became) and experiencing the difficulty the congregation had finding their note into the last verse, I think I may recast this as an instrumental anthem for piano and treble instrument. But I’ll let you be the judge. The piano is quite light in the recording, so you may want to look at the PDF while listening to the MP3.