Category: solo instrumental

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.

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.

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

Puer Nobis Nascitur

My setting of a traditional medieval melody arranged for cello and piano, score and part available on sheetmusicdirect and sheetmusicpus, although originally a Christmas text the same tune is used in some hymnals with an Easter text. I also have the same setting arranged for trumpet and pipe organ which you can hear at I made a trumpet and organ of the same arrangement. You can hear it at https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/puer-nobis-organ-trumpet.

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!

Yet another request…

My sister, my first music teacher (she taught me the names of the notes…at least that’s what I remember), said she thought my arrangement of The Staff of Faith (trumpet/organ version, oboe/piano version) would work well for her instrument (french horn). She’s absolutely right!

One of the things I taught my composition students was that (1) if you keep the tessitura of an instrumental in its optimum range and (2) as long as the dimensionality of the counterpoint is good [dimensionality of counterpoint is a whole topic unto itself] you can combine ANY instruments in ANY combination and they will balance well! (Almost always…LOL)

Working on the same arrangement but for three different instruments reminded me of that principle so thought I’d pass it on.

Here’s the SoundCloud computer demo of the horn version:

Sheet music available at https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1593234/Product.aspx and https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/the-staff-of-faith-my-faith-it-is-an-oaken-staff-22829054.html.

By request…

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.

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.