Tag: music

Score and video for “The Geography of Dreams”

6 programmatic pieces for symphony orchestra

The Geography of Dreams consists of six programmatic character pieces scored for symphony orchestra. The dreams portrayed have stuck in my memory and occured over a number of years and all take place in a world that reoccurs very often in my dreams, ever since I was a kid. This dream world has a complete geography that is quite consistent and which I’ve explored over the decades. It’s a peculiar feeling to know that this other world exists. It seems to exist outside of this time stream…but it is very real.

This video is all six movements combined. It’s not a “real” video…just images to have on the screen. But, YouTube has been my most productive social media in terms of prompting people to buy my scores. No other platform even comes close. Digital album available at https://hiltonjones.bandcamp.com/album/the-geography-of-dreams-2.

The score is available at https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/2169549/Product.aspx and
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/product/the-geography-of-dreams-score-only-23935874.html. BUT, I’m happy to email a free copy of a PDF of it to any of my online social media Friends who’d want it. (Not making that offer on the sites open to the public. Who knows, some unknown someone would want to actually what to buy an orchestral score. With 8.3 billion people on the planet, accidents do happen.)

Two EZ Advent Anthems!

Church music directors chaff at the bit to do Christmas things during Advent, but of course one is not supposed to do that, and for good reason: Advent is a season of spiritual preparation. It’s penitential and introspective. It’s even colloquially referred to as the “little Lent” and its anthems and texts are often somber…unlike Christmas music, which is fun!

That’s why I wrote these two anthems. The texts are 100% Advent, biblically and theologically, but instead of stressing the reflective nature of Advent, the texts stress joyful anticipation of the coming Christ. Musically, they have lilting tempi and both the words and the music are emotionally positive.

The Songs of Mary and Hannah pairs the song of Hannah from the book of Samuel with Mary’s Magnificat (parallel narrative themes are often linked between the Jewish Bible and the Gospels). The text of The Dream of Love was inspired by a sermon by The Revered Kim Wells, pastor of Lakewood UCC, St. Petersburg, FL. (Note: The Dream of Love starts briefly in minor but almost immediately transitions to resolute, sunny E major!)

Here are the two anthems as videos: first, the St. Petersburg, FL Lakewood UCC Choir doing The Songs of Mary and Hannah followed by a score video of The Dream of Love.

These anthems are available online at the following sites:
The Songs of Mary and Hannah: Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus
The Dream of Love: Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus

look up

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.

You can buy the mp3 album at https://hiltonjones.bandcamp.com/album/look-up. You can also listen to it for free, up to three times I believe.

While you’re there, check out the other mp3 albums at https://hiltonjones.bandcamp.com/!

The gorgeous album covers are all by Nathan Jones, my son, who is a successful designer in Atlanta, GA.

And finally, “Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life.” ~ Marcel Proust

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.

Missa de Angelis (complete)

For this piece, instead of separate videos for each of the five movements, I made a single video of the movements played one after another as they would be in concert. I did this because, although the five movements each have their own form, as a group they form a larger, emotional structure that isn’t apparent unless they are heard together. For instance, the last movement, the Angus Dei, is my favorite movement because of certain rhythmic, harmonic, and contrapuntal things I felt pleased with having done. But, the movement by itself, doesn’t have the same meaning without being heard in the context of being the “coda” to the preceding four movements. As usual, the sheet music is available at sheetmusicdirect and sheetmusicplus.

https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1084676/Product.aspx
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/missa-de-angelis-digital-sheet-music/21996590

Lift Your Hearts! as sung by unison choir

A while back I first posted about this song–lyrics by my sister, Rev. Lucy Lee Jones and music by me–and the media was a solo recording by a friend of mine. The above video is that same song but sung by a church choir. The text isn’t necessarily “religious,” but it has a spiritual and philosophical message that makes it appropriate to be sung in a church setting. The choir did a great job and seem to enjoy singing the tune.

I finally wrote down what I play for the accompaniment! I’ve written far too many pieces where I never wrote down my part, just the parts for the other instruments or voices. I’m trying to get some of that finally written down.

The song (which can be a solo or a unison choir piece) with its fully written out accompaniment for piano can be downloaded from Sheet Music Direct and Sheet Music Plus.

Music in honor of St. Patrick

revised IRISH TUNES coverThroughout March, Hilton is playing music during the service exclusively from the rich tradition of Irish folk songs. If you click on the arrow in the player below, you can hear 15 of the pieces he’s playing this month. This streaming music is for free and with no need to download anything.

Here’s a list on the songs in this playlist:

  1. Sally Gardens
  2. Red Haired Boy
  3. Carrickfergus
  4. The Maid That Sold Her Barley
  5. Raglan Road
  6. Spancil Hill
  7. Come To The Hills
  8. My Love Is A Band Boy
  9. The Meeting Of The Waters
  10. The Durham Rangers
  11. Slievenamon
  12. St Anne’s Reel
  13. The Wild Rover
  14. 4 Jigs
  15. Wexford Carol