budafulmusic

Another Christmas post.

Season of Light is a new Christmas musical from Majesty Music that I helped put together. It is my first endeavor with them with Christmas music. The focus of the musical is Christ, the Light of the world. In the drama, Mary and Joseph both have individual responses to this light and is contrasted with the wicked king Herod.

My favorite part of this program is at the end. It ends uniquely– not a seasonal song or medley– but with a wonderfully haunting, minor tune set to “The Light of the World is Jesus.” The recording for this piece turned out especially well.  Listen below.

Come to the light, ’tis shining for thee;
Sweetly the light has dawned upon me.
Once I was blind, but now I see:
The Light of the world is Jesus!

The Light of the world is Jesus!

Once finished, the choir and congregation join as one simply singing Silent Night, Holy Night by candlelight.

Light of the World

I’m pleased to present my first SoundForth published choral piece , O Come, All Ye Faithful. An arrangement of the original tune/text, this is one of my favorite Christmas hymns because of it’s inerrant nobility and majesty.

Here is how SoundForth describes the piece:

“Unique chord progressions and rich harmonies characterize this new arrangement by talented newcomer Brian Buda. Optional congregational participation and a soaring soprano obbligato infuse the music with vibrancy.”

JWPepper has also listed the arrangement on there editor’s choice catalog. Here’s what they said about it:

“A sturdy way to begin Christmas worship, this setting of the traditional carol is arranged for every choir. Written for SATB voices, piano, optional soprano descant and congregation, it is a fitting choice for opening your Christmas services.”

I’m excited about this publication, and am looking forward to posting about more music I’ve arranged for the up and coming Christmas season.

O Come, All Ye Faithful

31 flavors…

’31′ artsy bags…

the last day of the month…

all are good assumptions…

but 31 is a number which, here, signifies that I have collaborated once again with my friends Ron & Shelly Hamilton on their 31st Patch the Pirate adventure, The Legend of Stickyfoot. This is my second adventure in the popular children series (the first being last years, Kung Phooey Kid).

The musical styles in this adventure are broad going from the swashbuckling Great, Big, Beautiful World and You’ll Know That we are Pirates (Cause we ARR) to the more contemplative Holy is the Lord. Being a children’s recording, there are also some moral and fun songs like Tell the T-R-U-T-H and Bitter to Better.

This time around the majority of the songs were arranged by yours truly and it has been fun to hear how the recordings turned out. I also orchestrated a few songs including Holy is the Lord.

Enjoy this sample of this fun, final track from The Legend of Stickyfoot:

You’ll Know That We are Pirates

The premiere of Paul Keew’s A Christmas Carol is over but the recording is now being made available on sacredaudio.com. Listen to samples and download the original cast recording here.

I’ve been involved with working on another Performance Hall play being put on this Christmas season.

A Christmas Carol, based off the classic Dickens’ novel, is a new musical with original songs by Paul Keew and directed by Laura Spencer. It may be one of the larger productions put on in the hall with nearly 10 musicians being crammed into the backstage area and a full cast of actors and stage crew. Hearing the final product after spending many a long night pouring over them was extremely rewarding. I’m so thrilled to be a part of such an venture.

Ticket’s sold out very quickly and lines were long with people trying to get it but there is also an original cast recording that was quickly put together. It is available to those who were not able to attend, more on that later… I’ll try and get some audio samples up here as well.

A new choral collection put out by Majesty is now available. We Are Your Church contains 11 pieces, 5 of which I arranged. I’ve included new audio samples of each of them below. These songs are heart felt and are good songs that can aid in your church worship service. We Are Your Church is a good mixture of perennial hymn texts freshly styled and combined with new sacred songs.

Complete In Thee

The Fountain

All Glory, Laud, And Honor

The Cross Of Christ

Treasure Of My Heart

This fifth and final choral piece was actually the first that I arranged for Majesty this time around. The old hymn text has been set to a relatively popular new tune by Ben Nyce. This setting takes a rather restrained yet harmonically colorful approach to the text:

Complete in Thee! No work of mine
May take, dear Lord, the place of Thine;
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And I am now complete in Thee.

Complete in Thee—each want supplied,
And no good thing to me denied;
Since Thou my portion, Lord, wilt be,
I ask no more, complete in Thee.

Listen to an audio sample here.

Here are two additional samplings of music that I arranged for Majesty’s new choral collection. It and the full recording will be released later this summer. 

The Fountain

This well known Cowper text is treated with a new melody by Ben Everson. I first heard this tune but didn’t care to much for it. I have to admit that it grew on me and now I think it is one of the stronger pieces in this collection. A very placid and calm opening with the lines “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.” My favorite lines are at the close of this arrangement: “E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.”

All Glory, Laud and Honor

The not so familiar text about the triumphant entry, All Glory, Laud and Honor is paired with the very well known hymn tune, Ellacombe. Very fanfare-ish in nature, this piece captures the excitement of the text and rises to a climactic and memorable end. When I first started with this arrangement, I was nervous. I new of no less than 6-7 exsisting arrangements of this tune and was concerned that I might copy something from one of them in some way. Sometimes having a really good aural memory can work against you.

It’s been a busy start to the new year. Here are some of the things that I’ve been doing musically over the past month and a half of blog silence:

• Composed musical score for a short animated video
• Wrote out a half dozen choral pieces, more on this to come
• Orchestrating some choral music for a recording project, more on this also to come!
• Working on ideas for two commissions

My third collaboration with the Hamilton’s has yielded some more Budaful music. This time in the form of the annual Patch the Pirate adventure. I arranged 7 of the songs for the adventure.

I got in touch with my fun, kiddy sound for several arrangements but a few of the  sacred songs will probably end up as full church choir arrangements. Some of my favorites include Treasure of my Heart and God Said, “I Love You”. It can now be downloaded at Sacredaudio.com or purchased at Majesty Music’s website.

Btw, those who grew up with Patch before the popularity of CDs know just what the title of this post means!