Category: Descants

Fire of Justice, Fire of Love (choir, organ, & trumpet)

If you’re a church choir director, this is a good number for Pentecost. It can be done a number of ways: the basic configuration is the congregation and choir (in unison) singing the short refrain (a bulletin insert graphic comes with the choir parts) and the choir, or a section of the choir, or a soloist singing the refrains. The trumpet descant may be played on any soprano solo melody instrument, or if necessary by the organist (organists know what to do in order to do this).

I’m pleased to finally be able to have a demo of this version with full orchestration using the Cantai synth voices. There’s also a good video demo of the Lakewood UCC choir doing it as just a simple hymn. I like it that way ever bit as much as this fancy “downtown” version with organ and trumpet.

I write lots of secular music and arrangements, too. But, I’m honored even as an octogenarian to be able to have a church music director/keyboardist position. Bach, Mozart, Palestrina, Handel all had jobs as church musicians. It’s heartening to realize that even they had to get up early on Sunday mornings!

Sheet Music available from
https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1226200/Product.aspx
and
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/fire-of-justice-fire-of-love-digital-sheet-music/22380866.

#music #organ #trumpet #choir #church #sacred

4 Sets of Trumpet Descants on Familiar Christmas Carols

Sheet music should be online at sheetmusicdirect and sheetmsicplus by 10/6/25. These four sets can be played, a different descant for every verse, or the performer is welcome to pick and chose which to do and for which verses. This recordings shows them all in an order that works if all are done in a set.

Come, O Spirit, with Your Sound (for organ without pedals)

I was stumbling through my files looking for a prelude for this coming Sunday’s service (it’s Pentecost Sunday), and I found this that I’d arranged during the early days of the pandemic. We weren’t having services in person because of the lockdown. Instead, we had videos of Rev. Wells preaching and lots of music tracks created by me! I wouldn’t go back to those days, of course, but it was, beyond all doubt, one of the very most productive times in my life as a musician. From what I’ve read, productive in earlier pandemics, historically, skyrockets.

HKJ Pipe Organ Playlist

I’m in the process of tidying up my social media. I’ve written pieces I’ve even forgotten I’ve written, let alone posted anywhere.

I’ve also done some analysis of who buys what of my sheet music. Pianists seem to mainly buy my arrangements of songs, mainly folk songs. Organists mainly buy my original stuff! I would have guessed it would have been exactly the opposite.

Trying to build on what I’ve learned from my sales stats, I’m try to assemble all the pieces of mine on YouTube that use pipe organ (solo organ pieces and pieces for solo melody instrument and organ). Another thing I would have never guessed is the (free!) promotional power videos have on sheet music sales. Far more than purely audio sites.

Here’s a link to a playlist of videos of pieces of mine that use pipe organ: Organ Playlist

I’ll continue to add to that list as I find pieces I’ve forgotten, so if you like organ music you might check back from time to time.

Curoo, Curoo (The Carol of the Birds) for trumpet & organ

I wrote this arrangement of a traditional Irish Christmas carol, Curoo, Curoo (The Carol of the Birds) for solo melody instrument and keyboard (in this demo, trumpet and organ). Sheet music available at https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1656611/Product.aspx.


#Christmasmusic
#organ
#trumpet

Rummaging through boxes…

I’m getting all my trumpet descants in one spot, and ran across this. Aa a working composer/arranger I keep unearthing stuff I’d long forgotten I’d done. I’m also trying to find the 8 or 9 descants I’d written for Don Owen for one Christmas Eve service. They gotta be here someone…LOL
#music
#trumpet
#christmas

Joy Dawned Again on Easter Day (for trumpet & organ)

The sermon this coming Sunday needed musical selections with the word, “Joy,” in the title. Of course, there’s a bunch of hymns that qualify, and one Sunday School song I remember to this day from childhood. Of course, Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. I decided, needing a postlude, I might see what I could come up with of my own. This is the result. Alas, no trumpeter at hand, so I’ll just do a piano rendition as best I can on this Sunday. I seem to be coming up with a collection of trumpet and organ pieces. This’ll be a happy addition to that I think. The high school band trumpet player in me (I didn’t continue trumpet into college) thinks it’d be a fun and not too difficult piece to play! Although the title is appropriate for Easter, the original text Puer Nobis Nascitur) is a Christmas text!

The Staff of Faith

The Staff of Faith, has turned into one of my very, very favorite hymns. There’s just something about it that makes me happy, regardless what misery might be happening in real life.

I’ve written DOZENS of descants over the years…and improvised hundreds more during church services. I’m trying to collect all my descants into a publishable package. The task is tracking down the descants I bothered to write down. LOL

This one, and All Beautiful the March of Days that I posted recently are two I’ve found so far. If you go to my YouTube page, I’ll be posting all the descants there as I find them under my Trumpet Descants playlist.

EVENTUALLY, I’ll get the sheet music for them all available on the Hal Leonard sites: Sheet Music Plus, and Sheet Music Direct.