Category: folk music

Farewell to Old Ireland (an immigrant’s lament)

Learned a new tune, the harmonization, form, arrangement, and a drastic rewrite of the melody in the middle section of which are all mine, but it’s nevertheless a traditional Irish song about an immigrant who leaves his home for liberty in America. I tried to end the final word, “liberty,” with a musical question mark, or at least mixed emotion, or uncertainty.

This tune is sometimes titled The Green Fields of Amerikay (with that spelling). I chose to use the first phrase of the lyrics and add the explanatory subtitle.

Curoo, Curoo (Carol of the Birds) for pipe organ

I originally arranged this for trumpet and organ, then a friend asked for a cello and piano version. But, most of my sales are for solo piano or solo pipe organ music, so finally figured out how to keep the original counterpoint and do it for one person playing a pipe organ.
#pipeorgan
#organ
#christmasmusic
#carols

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

Call for Love (a Shaker song from 1839)

You may need to boost your volume a little in order to hear the description I spoke at the beginning. Rev. Kim bought a book of Shaker hymn tunes. One of these she asked me to arrange for the choir to sing today, Mother’s Day. The Blessed Mother, in the Shaker tradition, was the founder of the Shaker sect. There’s another phrase you my hear which is “love, love,” which is, the best I can tell, a term that means the same as agape, or divine love. The song, as it was passed down by Mother indicates where people should dance–they believe that dancing was prayer–and where people should speak in tongues (they called it “shout”). I picked a bunch of words that relate to motherhood, like Work, Song, Fatih, Peace, Care, Hope, Love, Joy, Dance, Soul, Life, Home, Dream, Heart, and the choir in certain passages are to intone words of their choice from that set of words, randomly.

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.

Wexford Carol (solo piano)

A favorite Irish Christmas song, it’s also satisfying to play. Here’s my arrangement of the familiar melody. The harmonization is slightly different from the usual interpretations, and I’ve invented an independent bass line. The sheet music available at the following sites:

Holy Manna (solo piano)

I finally found my perfect piano microphone: my iPhone balanced on the edge of a music stand and propped up by a hymnal. Best sound is with the piano lid open to just the first level. I get to church early and practice my stuff for service but since I’m always worried about being late (back in my undergraduate college days I slept through a student recital I was supposed to have played on…talk about traumatic). Anyway, I always have time left over, so I’ve taken to improvising a iPhone setup so I can tape some things. I’m having fun doing it. I like that it’s not a big deal: just push record!

This is my arrangement of one of my favorite old timey hymn tunes, Holy Manna from Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion compiled by William Walker and published by him in 1835.

God Rest Ye Merry, Y’all!

Another one in my series of Christmas carol arrangements for solo piano. The sheet music will be available on at SheetMusicDirect and SheetMusicPlus by September 5th or so. Check back here for links anytime after that.

Resignation

This arrangement of mine is a musical reflections on the hymn tune, Resignation, a melody of anonymous authorship from William Walker’s “Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion” (1835).

The second “verse” of the arrangement is a minor key treatment of the melody. It returns to a more upbeat character on the “third” verse, and an even more positive statement on the “fourth” verse.

The sheet music is available at https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/resignation-for-solo-piano-digital-sheet-music/22511247 and https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1330431/Product.aspx.

I don’t have videos of me playing a lot of these solo piano arrangements. I recorded them before I got into the practice of making videos. When there’s no video, I’m using a score synchronized with my audio recording.

New EZ Intermediate piano solo: “I Will Give My Love an Apple”

I’ve been having some sales of my solo piano pieces through the sheetmusicplus and sheetmusicdirect websites. It’s gratifying to actually make some money from something I’ve written. The only creatives who typically make less from their art than composers are poets! Right now I’m doing a bunch of EZ intermediate piano arrangements of folk tunes. Here’s the video of my playing the newest, “I Will Give My Love an Apple” – https://youtu.be/SX_xHIKMnwY. This video was made when I was about 85 pounds heavier than I am now. If one of your students would enjoy playing it, they can get the sheet music at
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/i-will-give-my-love-an-apple-piano-solo-digital-sheet-music/22492319 or https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1318783/Product.aspx. #music