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Caught up! (I think…)

With this one–All Bless the One–(video below) I think I’m finally caught up on having demos of all my choral pieces.

All Bless the One is an extremely easy but equally fun anthem to sing and play. It’s 2-part mixed so it works with the smallest of choirs. The text is my poetic paraphrase of Daniel 3:52-90. The accompaniment may be either organ (with or without pedals) or piano. This is one to keep in the choir’s folders for those Sundays when not everyone shows up…it’s an “emergency anthem.”

Here’s a link to a YouTube playlist of all my choral pieces to date: Choral and Vocal Music by HKJ. These were all written for actual use in the context of my job as a church music director or that of friends (such as Linda Ruescher who was responsible for my commission by the Academy of the Holy Names). I’m retired now, but I’m so grateful to the choir at Lakewood UCC for their patience in doing my music. It really helps to have a real-world purpose for writing a piece.

Sheet music for All Bless the One is available at https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1084655/Product.aspx and https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/all-bless-the-one-digital-sheet-music/21985223.

The Lost (now with Cantai vocals)

This is another one of those pieces every composer has that they keep futzing with long after they first thought they’d finished it. I think I finally got it as good as it’s going to get. But ya never know…

The words of this are based on three parables: the shepherd and the one lost sheep; the woman who lost and found the coin; the prodigal son.

In the earlier versions there was more counterpoint in the voices, but after performing it several time with the choir at Lakewood UCC I felt decided that the counterpoint obscured the words too much and the words really needed to be front and center.

This demo uses the Cantai voice library samples–this is the first time I’ve had a demo of the anthem with voices. Cantai voices continue to improve and they fill an important role for the composer who doesn’t have access to live singers (I’m retired from my church job and don’t have the income to hire singers).

Sheet music available at https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1494371/Product.aspx and https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/the-lost-digital-sheet-music/22714060.

CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM 

The recent flurry of posts is the result of my recent retirement from my position at Lakewood UCC, giving me the time and energy to try to complete demos of everything I’ve written. I’ve only a few more to do, then I can go back to being the dormouse in the Mad Hatter’s teapot.

Conditor Alme Siderum, is a Gregorian plainchant, translated as “Creator of the stars of night,” and is an Advent text. Nevertheless, the tune is familiar and I’ve made two arrangements of it, both usable and originally written for Easter but usually any time, actually.

The first is this one for SAAB choir to the text Awake My Soul and with the Sun by the anglican cleric, Thomas Ken. SAAB is a useful voicing for many choir directors of small choirs because, as mine did, they seldom have real tenors but plenty of baritones, and usually anymore, twice as many altos as real sopranos.

My other arrangement of Conditor Alme Siderum is for pipe organ, intended as an “Easter Fanfare.” You can see they’re somewhat the same. My harmonic language, generally, owes a lot to Erik Satie, which I unabashedly admit and which I have been repeatedly criticized for. Too bad. If you’re familiar with his Messe des pauvres you’ll see/hear it even in my approach to organ compositions. I have a recording of it I made at the Tampa Bayshore Baptist Church ages ago. Re-releasing it on BandCamp is on my ToDo list.

Awake, My Soul: Sheet music available at https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/2255073/Product.aspx and https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/awake-my-soul-and-with-the-sun-24027132.html
O Loving Founder of the Stars (organ): Sheet music available at https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/2255075/Product.aspx and https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/o-loving-founder-of-the-stars-24027136.html

Only a Word

Only a Word is a 2-part mixed anthem based on the words of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper 1825 – 1911 (African American abolitionist, suffragist, poet, and temperance activist).

Only a Word is a 2-part mixed anthem based on the words of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper 1825 – 1911 (African American abolitionist, suffragist, poet, and temperance activist).

Having done with my own choir, I can report that it took less than one rehearsal for them to learn it. The time signature is in 5/4 but because each measure has practically the same indelible rhythmic pattern it “plays itself” so to speak. If you think your choir might be afraid of that meter, think of (or maybe play a recording of) the second movement (waltz) Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #5 of Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.” If the rhythm is clear and predictable, amateurs handle 5/4 easily. Sheet music available at https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/2252705/Product.aspx and https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/only-a-word-24024644.html.

This piece is one of those, that for legal purposes, is hard to categorize: is it an arrangement or an original work? It uses melodic cells from the plainsong, Lauda Sion Salvetorum, but the not actual melody itself.

The reason this matters is that ASCAP handles performance royalties different between the two, and platforms like YouTube handle royalties and monetization differently between the two.

A wise colleague in the past counseled me on this when I was confronted by the same dilemma in some earlier, piano pieces. He asked, “Is the Fauré Requiem an arrangement or is it an original composition?” (The Requiem doesn’t contain actual quotes as far as I know, but it certainly has passages reminiscent of chant.) He concluded by saying it’s considered an original composition. There’s also the fact some organ compositions of mine based on Christmas hymns that were published by Concordia, in the score the publisher used the term “settings by” rather than “arranged by.” Is there a legal difference? I don’t know. And, frankly, I’d just rather write the music and let somebody else figure that stuff out.

Church choir directors!

Even if you’re already got your Christmas music in rehearsal you might still be stuck looking for an Advent anthem that’s not morose and an Epiphany anthem that’s uptempo. Here’s two you might consider for those needs:

The Songs of Mary and Hannah which is for 2-part mixed choir (unison women, unison men) and piano or organ. I’m not exaggerating when I say this is sight readable by any church choir. It’s also fun to sing. The texts are based on Mary’s Magnificat and its parallel antecedent in the book of Samuel. I had an earlier blog post on this one. The video is of the Lakewood UCC choir last Advent. The score is available at https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/2122993/Product.aspx and https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/the-songs-of-mary-and-hannah-23890938.html.

And for Epiphany, this one: Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning, “sung” here by a Cantai synthesizer. I’d love to get even a cellphone recording of a human choir doing it. This one isn’t quite as easy as the first, but a very small choir I subbed as director for learned it in one pre-service rehearsal, so it’s not difficult. You can judge for yourself; the video tracks with the score. The score is available for your choir at https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/2246958/Product.aspx and https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/brightest-and-best-of-the-stars-of-the-morning-24017557.html.

The Forgotten Path

This is a score video created from pages of the score and using the only audio resource I have at present, software midi instruments, playing from the score.

I study my sales statistics every so often and see if I can tell what people want. Pretty much, (at least of my music) pianists seem to want arrangements of folk tunes (which is good because I enjoy doing that) and pipe organists, peculiarly enough, seem to want original music of some difficulty (I would never have predicted this, but my statistics bear it out).

Even though I have quite a few very easy anthems on there, they don’t sell much which may be for stylistic reasons (I’m not a praise band fan) and also because my tests are 100% too “woke” and “empathic.” No problem…don’t intend to change a thing I believe or write.

I do, however, want to write more instrumental solos. Some, especially for brass, with organ accompaniment and some for strings or woodwinds with piano accompaniment. No particular reason than, at heart, I’m a gebrauchsmusik kinda guy.

I was shooting for intermediate difficulty, but the piece turned out at least advanced-intermediate, if not advanced. Unfortunately, the way I write (by ear, avoiding all verbal symbolic concepts…like authors who don’t write from an outline, seat-of-the-pants authors they’re called), I don’t have a lot of control over the output.

It’s one of those what you get is what you get kinda things.

Chocolate Challah

This is not a food blog, but this bust of enthusiasm can’t be contained. This is wonderful bread! A good friend and I went to Jo-el’s Kosher Market for lunch yesterday.

A glossy, braided loaf of chocolate babka with a rich, dark filling and a golden-brown crust, placed in a silver baking pan.
Sliced chocolate babka on a wooden cutting board, showcasing its twisted layers and rich filling.

This is not a food blog, but this bust of enthusiasm can’t be contained. This is wonderful bread! A good friend and I went to Jo-el’s Kosher Market for lunch yesterday. Our lunches were great of course (I wish I knew what the subtle, fragrent spice was in the stuffed cabbage side). As we were standing in line to pay on the way out, one of the cooks brought two giant trys from the kitchen and put them on a shelf beside where we were standing. She saw the looks on our faces and she said, “which one do you want?” One tray was poppy seed the other chocolate. It was a tough decision let me tell you. I went with the chocolate. I refrigerated it over night (it was steaming hot when I bought it) and today I sliced in and put up the slices in individual deli supply sandwich envelopes to freeze. Rather than toast the frozen ones, this works best microwaved for 30 seconds and then eaten with a spoon or fork. I will only allow myself one piece a week.

Score and video for “The Geography of Dreams”

6 programmatic pieces for symphony orchestra

The Geography of Dreams consists of six programmatic character pieces scored for symphony orchestra. The dreams portrayed have stuck in my memory and occured over a number of years and all take place in a world that reoccurs very often in my dreams, ever since I was a kid. This dream world has a complete geography that is quite consistent and which I’ve explored over the decades. It’s a peculiar feeling to know that this other world exists. It seems to exist outside of this time stream…but it is very real.

This video is all six movements combined. It’s not a “real” video…just images to have on the screen. But, YouTube has been my most productive social media in terms of prompting people to buy my scores. No other platform even comes close. Digital album available at https://hiltonjones.bandcamp.com/album/the-geography-of-dreams-2.

The score is available at https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/2169549/Product.aspx and
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/the-geography-of-dreams-score-only-23935874.html. BUT, I’m happy to email a free copy of a PDF of it to any of my online social media Friends who’d want it. (Not making that offer on the sites open to the public. Who knows, some unknown someone would want to actually what to buy an orchestral score. With 8.3 billion people on the planet, accidents do happen.)

The River Strong (on bandcamp)

https://hiltonjones.bandcamp.com/album/the-river-strong

Sheet music for all the titles avabile at sheetmusicdirect and sheetmusicplus. As I remember all the links also have videos. There’s a limited number of free screenings (3?) for all titles for both the audio and the videos.

Two EZ Advent Anthems!

Church music directors chaff at the bit to do Christmas things during Advent, but of course one is not supposed to do that, and for good reason: Advent is a season of spiritual preparation. It’s penitential and introspective. It’s even colloquially referred to as the “little Lent” and its anthems and texts are often somber…unlike Christmas music, which is fun!

That’s why I wrote these two anthems. The texts are 100% Advent, biblically and theologically, but instead of stressing the reflective nature of Advent, the texts stress joyful anticipation of the coming Christ. Musically, they have lilting tempi and both the words and the music are emotionally positive.

The Songs of Mary and Hannah pairs the song of Hannah from the book of Samuel with Mary’s Magnificat (parallel narrative themes are often linked between the Jewish Bible and the Gospels). The text of The Dream of Love was inspired by a sermon by The Revered Kim Wells, pastor of Lakewood UCC, St. Petersburg, FL. (Note: The Dream of Love starts briefly in minor but almost immediately transitions to resolute, sunny E major!)

Here are the two anthems as videos: first, the St. Petersburg, FL Lakewood UCC Choir doing The Songs of Mary and Hannah followed by a score video of The Dream of Love.

These anthems are available online at the following sites:
The Songs of Mary and Hannah: Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus
The Dream of Love: Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus