Categories
Arrangement Commissions Global Live

Music Unites Us: Babirye

Samuel Nalangira is a Ugandan songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has lived in West Michigan for several years. He is a consummate performer, an Adungu virtuoso, and a lovely human being.

He wrote a song when his twins were born called “Babirye” (the firstborn among twins). While many of his songs are energetic opportunities for Samuel to teach audiences African dance moves, “Babirye” is a mesmerizing, tender song based on a repeated Adungu* arpeggio.

The challenge with this song is that a four-chord pattern repeats over and over with vocals floating freely on top of that foundation. I decided that the best approach would be almost minimalist–some doubling of the Adungu arpeggio, a cloud of strings, and soloists and sections of the orchestra filling in the spaces between Samuel’s vocals like a conversation. This was one of my favorite arrangements; it felt like the orchestra added depth and texture, heightening Samuel’s already beautiful song.

Pay special attention to a few moments in the performance:

4:18 The song builds slowly with muted, sustained strings and light percussion doubling. More musicians are added little by little until a final build-up to the chorus at 7:30.

8:17 The oscillating marimba pattern worked beautifully in this section.

8:42 The “Babirye” theme moves through the orchestra, building lush chords.

10:30 I like how the arrangement winds down: the full orchestra finishes, and the strings take over, followed by short a woodwind coda.

*The Adungu is a harp-like Ugandan instrument.

Categories
Arrangement Commissions Global Live

Music Unites Us: Sufro Por Tu Amor

Grupo Super Nova is Cumbia band from Holland, MI, comprised of the Garcia brothers, who immigrated from Mexico when they were children. We decided on their original song, “Sufro Por Tu Amor” (“How Long Must I Suffer for Your Love?”) written by Christian Paul Garcia when he was 16.

Here’s where my job as an orchestrator became interesting. Cumbia is a Latin style that features a strong backbeat to create upbeat, danceable music. Upbeat and danceable are not typically an orchestra’s forte… Further complicating the task is that Super Grupo Nova already includes an electric bass and drum set, so I had to find ways to have them complement each other rather than fight.

A few notable moments:

1:45 Grupo Super Nova’s original recording began with a quiet synth pad and a digital harp arpeggio. It translated beautifully into solo violin and string pizzicato.

3:26 I love this string ostinato against the song’s melody. Together, they really soar.

4:00 This orchestral interlude felt just right–a brief moment for the orchestra to take the lead, with the melody volleying between sections. It was also at this point in the performance that the rhythm gelled between the band and the orchestral percussion. (In retrospect, we should have put the band on the percussion side of the orchestra so they could hear each other.)

Categories
Arrangement Commissions Global Live

Music Unites Us: Minka Variations

The first collaboration was with Nina Tritenichenko. She sings and plays Bayan Accordion, an all-button accordion that is common throughout the world, including her home country of Ukraine. The tune she chose was “Ikhav Kozak za Dunaj” (“The Cossack Rode beyond the Danube”). This folk song became popular throughout the world by its German name, “Schöne Minke” (“Beautiful Minke”).

Nina had a specific set of variations on the Minka tune that she wanted to perform. Because her accordion part was set in stone, my task was to build around it with the orchestra. I began by composing a grand overture-style introduction–a fanfare that established the tone of what was to come. Next, she sang a verse of the song to introduce the theme. Each variation became increasingly complex and exciting, with orchestration to match.

Some favorite moments in this arrangement include:

4:00 I turned this variation into a duet with the concertmaster! It added texture to the solo accordion and let an orchestra member momentarily come to the foreground.

4:42 I’m a huge fan of arpeggios that sweep through the orchestra like a harp. This one worked magnificently.

5:00 This interlude gave Nina a breather and created anticipation for the final, flashy variation.

Categories
Arrangement Commissions Global

Music Unites Us: Overview

This year I was asked by the Holland Symphony Orchestra to work with four global musicians to choose and arrange a selection they would perform with the orchestra. I was thrilled: I have a lifelong interest in global music, have studied Ethnomusicology, played with an African drum ensemble, and edited a collection of global hymns.

In fact, my work with global worship music gave me good experience in what I call “musical transplanting”: taking music from one culture and helping it flourish in another context. It’s a delicate process. Non-Western music is full of timbres, rhythms, and aesthetic sensibilities that aren’t part of a Western context. Ideally, you want to engage with another culture’s music in a way that honors the sending culture but is also accessible to the receiving culture. This is made all the more difficult because many global musicians are play-by-ear musicians whereas Western-trained musicians–especially orchestras–rely on printed music.

In the next few blog posts, I’ll introduce each musician I worked with and discuss the unique approach required to transplant their music into an orchestral context. First, enjoy this overview video that explains how the Music Unites Us project came to be.

Categories
Demos Jazz

Can We Begin This Again?

Continuing the series of jazz demos I recorded with Steve Talaga, here is something a little different. “Can We Begin This Again?” is perhaps at the edges of jazz, depending on how you define jazz. It leans toward the pop side of things: Laufey*, Sade, Norah Jones, or Bruce Hornsby, for example.

More notable are the lyrics. It’s so easy to get stuck in the trappings of genre: heavy metal is angry, singer-songwriters are introspective, and jazz is about romance, found and lost. In this song, we’re listening in on two lovers arguing. There is the immediate need to deescalate and take up the conversation later, the realization that a lot of our conflict is based on past events rather than what your partner said or did, and the hope that friction is one of the things that makes a relationship go deeper. In that way, it’s a lot like the Williams Brothers’ song, “Friction.”

1. Can we begin this again
when we’ve both had some sleep,
some time to cool off
and some space to think?

This is just going to end
the way it began:
with so many words
we’re going to regret.

Words that are heard as an echo
of voices that hurt us long ago.

Can we begin this again?

2. We can’t begin this again
as if we’d just met;
as if there’s nothing to lose
and the cement is still wet.

As time goes on
ruts start to form,
but love can grow deep
as the path is worn.

Can we grow closer still through the failure and pain?
Offer the tender parts of our hearts every day?

Can we begin this again?

*For a fascinating introduction to Gen-Z phenom Laufey, see Adam Neely’s video, Is Laufey Jazz?

Categories
Demos Jazz

Content

Sometimes you have to cut through all the angst and just be happy, right?

This song is a light and airy pop tune whose instructions say: “Without a trace of cynicism.” Indeed, it is one of the happiest tunes I’ve ever written; hence the title, “Content.”

Now, it might seem that writing a carefree little tune would be easy, but this actually went through about five drafts before I settled on a final version that felt bouyant, but not cloying; a bon bon of musical goodness that was satisfying rather than sickeningly sweet.

Categories
Demos Jazz

Big Bottom Blues

This is just a quick demo of a song I introduced previously. Interestingly, shortly after Steve Talaga and I recorded this demo, I changed the key of the song to put it in a better range for the horns that played it with me at an Outside Pocket concert on Friday, 10/06/23.

Maybe I’ll post the recording of “Big Bottom Blues” from Friday’s concert in the future. For now, enjoy this one-take wonder.

Categories
Demos Jazz Live

Sky Blues

A while back, I was playing with the minor blues form. Songs like “Sugar” or “Stolen Moments” are so simple, yet seem to provide endless possibility. I actually sat down at the piano and sketched out a half dozen directions a minor blues tune might go. As I played with each of those, a few songs began to emerge. “Sky Blues” is perhaps the most straight forward of all of them. Not as low down and greasy as “Sugar” or as smooth and mysterious as “Stolen Moments,” but with a charm all its own.

It is a bright tune for a minor blues, hence the name, “Sky Blues.”

Categories
Demos Jazz Live

Flutter

After a long absence (from blog posting, not from composing), I am back with a series of new jazz tunes. You may be aware that my jazz group, Outside Pocket, just came out with an album titled Grace Notes. But you know my motto: “Can’t stop. Won’t stop.” Even while Grace Notes was in production I was writing new music. Over the coming weeks I’ll be posting the fruit of that labor, in the form of a casual read-through recording session with Steve Talaga.

Steve Talaga

Today’s song is “Flutter.” It is a breezy tune that ascends, dips, and floats like the butterflies that visit our house’s monarch waystation. On a future recording, I could hear flute on “Flutter,” but for now Steve creates his own magic on the piano.

If you’d like to stay up to date on Outside Pocket’s recordings and gigs, I encourage you to sign up for our newsletter.

Categories
Church Congregational Songs Psalms

Psalm 136: The Gracious Love of God Will Never End

Sorry I haven’t been posting regularly lately. Sometimes the music business gets in the way of the music itself…

I’m back with a new Psalm. This draft has been in my idea folder since 2020 when I read that Psalm 136 was something of an addendum to the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134). You’ll remember that I set all 14 of those Psalms to music in my Pilgrim Psalms project. At the time I jotted down some ideas for the song, put it in my idea folder, and promptly forgot about it. But this week I stumbled across it and decided it was time to complete it.

You’ll remember that Psalm 136 is a long Psalm with the repeated refrain, “His love endures forever.” That suggested to me a call-and-response style song, with a leader singing the bulk of the text and the people responding. While “his love endures forever” gets the job done, the Hebrew is much richer. The word “love” encompasses loving-kindness, grace, mercy, and compassion. I arrived at a repeated refrain of “The gracious love of God will never end.”

The Psalm is divided into five sections: a prelude of thanksgiving, creation, salvation (from Egypt), leading (through the wilderness), and final praise. This is represented in the song’s five verses. (Purists beware: I left out the bits about God killing Og, king of Bashan, etc.)

Musically, it is similar to many of my Pilgrim Psalms; it is a simple call-and-response that could be led without music. It is music for the journey. And we could all use a little encouragement on the journey, couldn’t we?

Give thanks to the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord.
The gracious love of God will never end.

1. Give thanks to the Lord. Our God is good!
Give thanks again to the God of gods–
the God of gods and Lord of lords–
for God alone works wonders.

2. The heaven’s expanse was God’s design.
God’s hand rolled out earth o’er the ocean wide;
created the sun, marking days with its light;
the moon and the stars, keeping watch over our nights.

3. Our God visited us in our misery,
and broke the chains of captivity.
God’s mighty hand pushed back the sea,
and led us through. God set us free!

4. Through weary years in the wilderness,
the light of God shone upon our path.
Dangers and foes, without, within;
God’s love became our promised land.

5. The humble and poor are God’s delight.
God sees our need and hears our cry.
All creatures are sustained by God’s loving-kindness.
All earth gives thanks to our God on high!