The Wondrous Gift

"The Wondrous Gift" was another early attempt. I wasn't even attempting piano accompaniment at that time, so I asked my mom - another amateur trying to do her best - to work on the music with me. The words and hymn joining were my idea, the music was all her doing. I think it turned out beautifully. It is a Christmas hymn, combining "Once in Royal David's City" with "There is a Green Hill Far Away" words sung to the music of "O Little Town of Bethlehem." I really love how the words progress through the piece, and think it teaches a good principle about Christ and the meaning of his birth, thus the meaning of Christmas. 

Follow the Lord

This is one of the first attempts at arranging music - so it is fairly basic. It is a combination of the hymns "Come, Come Ye Saints" and "Lord, I Would Follow Thee", with a final verse written by me for "Come, Come Ye Saints" which reads: "Remember those who journeyed here for you, and the gifts they gave. These Pioneers loved God as much as life; When he spoke, they obeyed. What can we do in Heaven's view, to honor them with Gratitude? If when He speaks, we'll obey - All is well! All is well!" I used it to celebrate Pioneer Day last year.

Let me know!

I would love to know if you do download and use any of this music - and how it goes. Please add a comment telling me which piece  you are going to use, and where! I'd love to know where in the world this music ends up!

Silent Night

This is not your mother's version of Silent Night. It doesn't stay soft all the way through, something that I quite like. I "heard" the moving parts when I was listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing this hymn during the Christmas season, so I sat down to write it out. This was actually my first effort at using something other than the standard piano-playing-the-choir-parts, and again I owe a debt of gratitude to my neighbor for playing through it and telling me when I wrote music that was humanly impossible to play! My computer program has no problem playing many octaves with one "hand"! I think the hymn arrangement progresses quite naturally from verse to verse, adding additional layers to each verse. I LOVE the third verse, and the build, then the decrescendo. I can't hear this hymn anymore without hearing the movement I put in. I hope you like it as much!

Redeemer of Israel

Redeemer of Israel came to pass because my favorite apostle, Elder David A Bednar, mentioned that this is his favorite hymn. As is always the case, it started with a simple idea of how I would do a certain verse - in this case, I wanted a major to minor change on the third verse, to indicate walking in the wilderness. I included all six verses of the hymn from my standard hymn book, and as always, the piano parts during the singing is fairly standard - playing along with the choir, with just a few note additions, or octave changes. I'm really bad at changes in the bass cleft. I plan on having the piano play along with the choir on the third verse if my choir has a hard time staying in the minor key. On the sixth verse, the Alto, Tenor and Bass parts all sing together on the melody, with a Soprano descant rephrasing the first verse overhead. I imagine it is what the angels are singing, as spoken of in the sixth verse, "He looks and ten thousands of angels rejoice." The last line was much more simple, with only 2 measures of piano, until my neighbor (and excellent piano player) insisted that I add more interest to the piano. I am very grateful for her input, as I think it made the music much more interesting.

Lead, Kindly Light

This hymn is my dad's favorite. He hasn't heard it yet, so I don't know if he approves of how I've messed with it. Parts of it, I arranged a few years ago. Once I came back to it, I added the piano parts, and the intro/conclusion. It was my sister, Denise, who suggested changing the timing on the first verse to be straight, instead of the traditional lilting melody. I really like how the second verse turned out, kind of round-like, joining together on the end phrases. The third verse just adds words where there was simple musical movement before, and a bit of a soprano descant. I like how the piano changes just a bit between each verse - though some might tell me that I should just keep it the same. Tell me what you think!

Why I blog...

I was put in charge of the music in my ward about a year ago. Included in these responsibilities was leading the Ward Choir, a calling I've had before. I was given a budget to purchase sheet music, but not enough for new music every month. I have a music program that I've used for other purposes, so instead of writing out sheets saying how I want each verse sung, I started to input the hymns into my program and detailing the parts - unison, 2 part, and so on. This developed more and more, and I am now to a point that I am pretty pleased with the music I've made. I love to sing, can (barely) play the piano, but I have no training in composing music. So, don't expect too much, and forgive any flaws. I just thought that there are probably many other people out there, trying to lead ward choirs on limited budgets, and having free music that is easy for beginning choirs to learn is always a nice thing to have. So, I'm putting this music out there, hoping that someone will like it enough to use it!