My dear friend, William Lindsay, who died November of ’24 after a long, progressive battle with dementia and Parkinson’s, used to tell me whenever I was in the clutches of melancholy, “look up.” He mean it literally as well as figuratively. It worked every time, and still does. Somehow just the physical act of looking up at whatever there is to see, the mind is diverted from the unwanted thoughts. Clouds, tops of trees, birds flying, tall buildings, stars, the sun, sunrise colors, sunsets, the cerulean sky…doesn’t matter, even a telephone pole will do.
That’s what this album of piano pieces is all about, and it’s dedicated to Bill.
We wrote this in January after you-know-who, you-know-what. I think Lucy’s point in her lyrics is the only answer: rest in the safe harbor of our trusted friendships. We gotta stick together! And resist!
On Christmas Eve at my church job, I play an extended 30+ minute prelude. These are the pieces I’ll be playing: https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sets/a-christmas-concert-ive-piano. This is in an “album” order (best ones first), but at church, I’ll do it in exactly reverse order (best ones last since it’s an extended prelude and folks are pretty rowdy early on). That URL will be in the Xmas Eve Bulletin so if people want to hear the pieces again later, they can. These are all self-published arrangements of mine available at sheetmusicdirect and sheetmusicplus. This album cover was done by Nathan Jones, my son, for an earlier CDR release; the recordings linked to here are all new and I think I’ve done a better job of performing them and mixing them than the old CDR album. #piano #music #christmas
One thing every person in the arts learns–whether it be music, dance, visual arts, literature, whatever–is that there’s no accounting for what different people like or don’t like, including oneself. This isn’t one of my favorite pieces. It may be a surprise to people that people who’ve created something might not like it all that much. There’s a reason for that: when you create something, it’s not that you’re taking dictation from the Cosmic Radio or something, but you get lost in the process of writing and The Thing (in horror movie font) takes on a life of its own and It has a “way” it wants to be. Hard to explain. Anyway, as I was saying, this isn’t one of my favorite pieces, but for (to me) a surprising number of people, it’s the favorite of the pieces on the CD (Cantus) it’s from. For that, I’m grateful. It was hard to write and even harder to record. Nice to know someone likes it.
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.
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.
There’s a book a friend of mine, Robert Help, read when he was about my age, called The Summing Up, by Somerset Maugham. I’ve not yet read it (it’s on my list with several thousand others), but just the title strikes a responsive chord with me. It’s what I seem to be doing right now: summing up all I’ve written and recorded (audio and/or video), and where the scores and recordings might be found, listed all in into one spot: https://hiltonkeanjones.com/compositions/.
It’s a monumental effort. In addition to what’s already on that page, I have 46 more original compositions to get on there and 34 arrangements of public domain tunes. That’s not counting all the links that need to be added to existing listings on the page and any new pieces I might manage to write and record.
Why?
As a former composition student, now himself a teacher and a friend, once answered when I asked myself why I continued to write: “Because that’s what you do.” It’s probably the best answer I’ve ever heard. (I assume that answer also applies to organizing what one has written.) Although, I am well aware and fully admit “vanity of vanities! All things are vanity” is even more true.
The most recent addition to the composition page is an updated version of The World of Starlit Butterflies.
The piano part is completely rewritten so it’s shorter and hopefully more interesting but still fun to play and listen to. The 2 keyboard version and the solo piano version have exactly the same piano part. In other words, the strings are optional. Using the second keyboard gives pianists the chance to experience ensemble playing, a skill they’ll need in order to earn a living later in life. The fundamental piece is the solo piano version, the video that leads this article.
I seem to have found “my place,” writing pieces and arrangements for piano that fit the “easy intermediate” difficulty level. I’m quite happy to have found “my place.” It’s my happy place! Those pieces are selling!
Our move is finally over and I’ve got my office (and my mind) more or less tidy enough to start back to work. The first project was to finish this anthem/song/whatever…
I’d love to get a grant that would pay the musicians, conductor, and studio to make a recording of the couple dozen anthems (hymns) I’ve written, but I really don’t know where to even apply for such a thing. My stuff’s too commercial and, doubly damned, it’s religious. Not promising for grants.
Until such a utopian future, I’ll have to satisfy myself with computerized orchestral demos, like this one. The score gives the words, so you’ll have to use your imagination.
All four albums are now on streaming sites. Here’s the Spotify links. If you know someone who you think would enjoy this kind of mellow instrumental music, please share.
I’ve written a lot of music in almost 77 years. And arranged a lot. Played and improvised a ton more. When it comes to marketing, though, I’ve been a dismal failure. My usual approach is to write a piece and then put it in a drawer and forget it.
Beginning with the pandemic–I guess because we were stuck at home and insomnia demanded something to do in the wee hours–I began to record some of my stuff and to dig through my files to find stuff I’d written in the past.
The pandemic was a resurrection of sorts for me, creatively.
After getting into recording my stuff, now finally, I’m getting CDs made and digital albums online. Along with selling the CDs on Amazon and CD Baby, my stuff will also be on BandCamp, Spotify and iTunes.
All this is self-publishing, of course, but these days, indie publishing no longer suffers from the curse of being called “vanity” publishing. Technology has made that old point of view irrelevant. Indie publishing is self expression and countless, truly countless examples exist on the internet, every second, of the world’s interest in the self-expression of others. For sure, not everyone’s expression finds an immense audience, but that doesn’t matter. Expression is its own reward.
My arrangements of 19 tunes from the 1835 hymn collection, “Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion,” are now available as a downloadable digital album on Bandcamp. It’s still available for free streaming on SoundCloud. For those who prefer a more tangible form, an audio CD will be available on Amazon sometime in the next 6 weeks–link to come. Many thanks to all who have helped with this project, especially Nathan, my son and a graphic designer in Atlanta who did all the project artwork.
