A friend saw the post on The Staff of Faith (My Faith It Is an Oaken Staff) for trumpet and organ and asked if I’d make a version for oboe and piano. What a great idea. With a couple adjustments to the key and the piano part it worked well. It’s now available at Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus. You can see and hear a full preview at those sites. You can also listen to a computer demo at this SoundCloud player.
Category: instrumental
Trumpet & organ piece added to sheet music direct/plus
A gentleman in the U.K. stumbled upon a YouTube video of this piece, and after not finding it on either Sheet Music Direct or Sheet Music Plus, he emailed me to ask about it. I’d written the piece, intending to publish it, but like many things at my age, forgot to do so. So, his kind email prompted me to get the deed done. My The Staff of Faith (My Faith It Is an Oaken Staff) for trumpet and organ is now available at Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus. Both sites allow you to fully preview the score and the audio. But, you can also listen to it on the Soundcloud player below.
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.
The Babe of Bethlehem (cello & piano)
Sunday morning, December 17th, 2023, my friend of many years, Scott Kluksdahl will play this with me at the church where I’m music director, Lakewood United Church of Christ. I’m looking forward to this tremendously.
The “cello” on this recording isn’t Scott, it’s just sampled sounds on a computer. The video and the sound track are just for demo purposes at the two websites where I self-publish my sheet music: sheetmusicdirect and sheetmusicplus. The score will be available there mid-September. Below is the miniature score version if you want to follow along with the video.
String Quartet
Another sheet music listing, my string quartet. The performance is a very advanced student group from the former East Germany. I thought they did a terrific job on the piece. Frankly, it didn’t think it was possible. They got the savage, aggressive character that I wanted perfectly too! Such passion!
You can listen to all four movements for free at the links below and see the first 5 pages of the score. If you’d like a freebie PDF of the complete thing, drop me a msg.
- https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/string-quartet-digital-sheet-music/22451953
- https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1279816/Product.aspx
Shenandoah
Arranged for a chamber mixed ensemble of flute, bassoon or alto saxophone, harp or keyboard, cello or viola, and glockenspiel or celeste. The difficulty level is of the percussion part and string part is very easy, and the difficulty of the harp part (or keyboard) and woodwind part is easy-intermediate. Free streaming of audio & video as well score & parts available purchase at these two sites:
Sonatina for Cello and Piano
I’ve been working at filling out my SheetMusicPlus and SheetMusicDirect listings. Here’s a recent one: Sonatina for Cello and Piano. It’s available at these links:
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/sonatina-for-cello-piano-digital-sheet-music/22451414
https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1279280/Product.aspx
At those links you can stream the audio of the complete piece for free and look at the first 5 pages of the score. Of course, the score and any parts are available for purchase and download at a very nominal fee.
Two dear friends, Robert Helps (deceased) and Scott Kluksdahl did a sight-reading run through for this demo recording. I’m so grateful for their willingness to do so.
Mov. 4 The Geography of Dreams: “Revelry in the City of Dreams”
Mov. 6 The Geography of Dreams: “Dawn (awakening)”
Mov 5 The Geography of Dreams: “Amidst The City’s Desolation The Anima Appears As A Woman Clothed In Radiant White”
A word of explanation about the title, The Geography of Dreams. Some folks have recurring dreams. I don’t, but all of my numinous dreams take place in the same geographical location. It’s a city on a peninsula beside a sea, similar to San Francisco or St. Petersburg where I now live; however, it’s definitely in Europe — feels as if it might be Spain — and in a far different time…whether in the distant past or distant future, perhaps another dimension, I can’t tell.
The different movements of The Geography of Dreams are programmatic pieces based on actual numinous dreams I had that take place in the city by the sea.
So, while I’m dealing with this insomnia, I’m creating score videos of the different movements. Not doing them in order of performance, but rather just as the spirit moves me.