Budafulmusic

Back by popular demand, Funny Faces will have a second showing this Wednesday evening at 5 in Stratton Hall. I don’t remember seeing the 700-800 seat hall that packed before this past Saturday. Every seat was taken and there where people standing in the back. The ushers had to turn away a large number of disappointed people. Some even watched on the new view screen in the back just outside the hall.

I decided to post a few more clips for your enjoyment including a sappy theme I wrote for one of the characters in the hilarious Chick Fil-A video. Alas, most of the music I wrote for this creepy old man was not used in the video. Eat your heart out, Chuck!

Schmaltz

I posted a section of this already, enjoy the whole thing.

Pre-show music1 (complete)

Also, one of my favorite sections from Mimes the Word, a 10 minute Pantomime sequence!

Mimes the word sample

In all the business with travel plans for Thanksgiving I neglected to mention something from a few weeks ago. I was privileged to co-orchestrate a choral piece entitled ‘My Jesus, Fair’, a new hymn by Chris Anderson and Greg Habegger, for a praise service that was held in BJ’s chapel hour. Listen to the entire song at BJ’s site. The printable hymn is a free download at churchworksmedia.com.

Lord, I am Thine is the third and final of hymn tunes that I wrote for my composition lessons in grad school. I did arrange this one into a choral arrangement, some few may remember (while I try to forget) . This text is one of only two of Samuel Davies texts that are known to be written by him (or are at least available to the public). I came across Lord, I am Thine while researching for my American Hymnody class. If there was one consistency with my choice of texts for these three hymn tunes, it was this: that it (the text) should full of strong, doctrinally sound words conveyed in a beautiful and worshipful way and that text should be the driving force behind the composing of the tune and is harmonization.

This Davies text meant a lot to me when I wrote the melody and harmonized it. It speaks of our position in Christ that we have because of His “blood divine” and of what He has done for us. Because of the sacrifice of Christ, we ought to be compelled give our lives in full consecration. View and print the PDF here. Listen to a pianistic harmonization here.

This Sunday afternoon (October 4) at BJU is the second of a series of sacred programs known as vespers. For this specific program, I was asked to composed 25+ minutes of music to accompany 6 video segments that will appear in between sections of live drama and choir music. If you are in the Greenville area and would like to attend, performance times are listed on the BJU calender of events.

The six video segments mentioned earlier are a telling of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. This is an ambitious thing to attempt in a 40 minute program! Obviously much had to be left out of the 2-inch+ thick book. Various actors narrated the different characters in the story while the drawings of Doré’s Paradise Lost are displayed on screen and played out as the narration progresses. My job was to score the music, most of which is synthetic. I scored primarily to the narration track after I read the script. I didn’t see the visual material until I was done writing the music, after which I made several edits! I used a friend of mine’s voice, DeLaura Talbert, for portions of the score and they are some of my favorite sections. I also used my own voice as a bass drone for the more devilish parts.

This program combines so many artistic elements and comes together so well which makes the message of the program all the more powerful. God takes bad things, evil, problems that we create because of our sin and turns that very evil into something good.

Here are some audio samples of the music sans narration:

PL segment 3

PL segment 5

PL6 redemption

I took part in the 3rd Annual Composition Recital this past semester on May 5th. I wrote a choral anthem entitled, as you may have guessed, Blest be the Tie. It is a reboot of the familiar Fawcett text set to a new tune. Having been involved in two other composition recitals other than my own, I feel compelled to say that this was by far the most successful of the three. In part, because of BJ’s own Chorale as the chorus that sang for it. Their performing of the choral music was well done as usual. You can hear two other pieces that were performed in the recital here and here. Such good memories!

Blest be the Tie

Every once in a while I get to thinking about the essence of music. You know, what music is. What is music to you? As I finish up my graduate studies and (hopefully) graduate in the coming month, I reminisce about the times when I sang around the piano with my family. That’s what music is. The hours that I spent preparing for my senior piano recital. That’s what music is. When a congregation sings a hymn of praise in worship to their Maker, yes, even that is music. Those moments in a musical performance that just gel with the entire ensemble and music… happens.

That is what music is.

As my inbox gets cluttered with messages from various music downloads sites displaying the latest hit single, I think, “That’s not music.” As I listen to my iPod as I work out with all of my favorite tunes, I think, “Even this is not music (though they are recordings of what music sometimes is and often we are content with just that).” When I look back at tonight and think about the pieces that the BJU Chorale sang, I grin and think to myself, “Yes, I made music that night. That was what music is.”

Thank you Dr. Cook and Mr. Flower, it has been a pleasure and an honor to make beautiful music with you.

What is music to you? May I suggest that if your music listening habits consist of mostly CDs and head phones, you are missing out on what music is. Go to a concert and hear the difference.

Wow, it’s been a week since my recital. It was well received and had a good audience in spite of the many other activities of the night. I think everyone’s favorite piece was the closing sacred choral work, “It is not Death to Die”. It communicated a great message and was a perfect closer for the evening. I’ll be getting the recording of the recital next week and then I’ll get one to each of my players and anyone who would like to purchase one for a modest sum. It was also captured on an HD camera which means it’s a very high quality image. I’ll be the first recitalist to have my recital on a Blue-ray disc. I don’t have a blue-ray player but from the looks of it with in a few years from now, most people will.

People have been asking me what I am doing now that my recital has past. I am trying to keep busy with my regular duties as a GA/student but I admit that I have needed to take a couple of days to just unwind. It was a tremendous time in my life, full of good memories and hard work. It is also just the beginning of the adventure.

Dr. Forrest wants to put together a student composition recital at the end of this semester. It has become a tradition for the past three years. I need to write something for this. I’m thinking something choral. Something Alfred Lord Tennyson. Or I could use a choir piece that I have already written…

In addition to my recital this week, I have been busy wrtting music for several other events, some unexpected. BJ Distance Learning is having another Help at Home Live show and I arranged a new hymn tune for the event.

I also composed music for a recital which, inceidentally falls at the same exact time as my own recital. It is a speech recital, evidentally music and speech recitals are allowed to be scheduled separately. Anyway, which ever recital people decide to go to they’ll be getting my music.

I finished composing the music for the student film that I had mentioned before. I think it will turn out alright. I’m hoping to be at the recording sessions so I can help the players out.

The cello arrangement I arranged has undergone surgery several times but it is at a place where it is quite nice. It will be performed this coming week here at BJ during our own Bible Conference, Monday afternoon.

What a weekend!!

I’m making head way on my recital. Today I sent out what I’m hoping will be the final parts that my players will use. Of coarse we will change things here and there but I hoping the majority of changes will be behind me. There are only 4 more rehearsals until the recital date, I figure that few changes as possible are a good thing for consistency sake of the ensemble. It’s also getting to sound better too as people begin to see what it is I’m after.

I’ve updated my works page, it now holds things up to my compositions for my recital.

Today I passed my composition recital check. I am so relieved and tired after the event. It was thrilling to hear the music come together after all of the work my ensemble and I put into. Amid all the problems, mistakes and blunders the committee was very encouraging and I will be taking a close look at the comments that they made and considering some modifications to the recital. But all that aside, the check is over and now on to the recital which is now exactly 28 days from now!

It was strange, I walked into WMC (the same place my recital will be) for a recital later this evening and just enjoyed myself. I think that now with this behind me I can enjoy life a little more.

But only a little. Now my “extra” time can be filled with my neglected school work.