budafulmusic

A new post has been long overdue. Want to be sure to have something worth posting and not just blab. Several things have developed over the past few weeks.

• Just finished a commission for a wedding this summer. I wrestled for quite some time over an appropriate (tr: un-hoaky) wedding text and finally settled on a newer one entitled Lord, Make Us One. I think it turned out quite well. I am also pleased that I will be able to accompany for  it’s performance at the wedding. Scored for piano, harp, cello and duet vocals. I’ll hopefully get a recording of it.
• I had mentioned that I had done some orchestrating. I had the privilege of scoring several existing sacred choral pieces as well as arranging a few pieces myself. Really looking forward to how these will turn out on the recording! One thing that helped inspire my instrumentation for this music was what Rimsky-Korsakov’s prefaces his Principles of Orchestration with: “Write for the group you know will be playing the music and not for an ideal group.” Great advice.
• Speaking of orchestrating, My Jesus, Fair seems to be doing well over at www.churchworksmedia.com. Just received my first paycheck for that orchestration. Keep ‘em coming!
• My friends over at Majesty Music and I are collaborating once again for another Easter program. I have been busy arranging some great hymn texts/tunes and am looking forward to how they will be implemented as a whole.

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!

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.

I recently had the privilege to compose incidental music for an upcoming Graduate speech recital. Sounds really academic, huh? Well don’t take it too seriously. This program is not for the long of face. In short, the extremely talented Allisha Sperr will be performing a series of short, absolutely hysterical comedy routines. I cannot begin to describe how funny this recital is going to be. You just have to see it for yourself to believe it.

This program takes place in Stratton Hall on the campus of BJU this Saturday, December the 5th at 7 o’ clock pm. Here are some audio samples:

Pre-show2: waltz

Pre-show1

Break their hearts, All is ha!

This past weekend, I received my first acceptance letter for a choral work. Hinshaw, a music publisher, was delighted with my choral anthem It is not Death to Die and will feature it in an upcoming production season. I posted the recording from the recital before this but it can now be accessed here as well:

It Is Not Death

I’ll be posting about this again as details solidify.

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.

As an engraving editor at SoundForth, one of my responsibilities is to get piano books ready for publishing. Just in time for the Christmas season, this new advanced Christmas piano collection, arranged by Amy Herbster from Herbster Evangelistic Ministries, was one of my first projects. It is exiting to see it come to print. It is a companion to the previously existing recording.

This second hymn tune in my short series of hymn tune postings is set to a common meter text by Isaac Watts. Based on Psalm 16, When God is Nigh is about God’s ever sure presence in our lives and the protection and comfort He provides us on our earthly journey and then talks of the glories and pleasures of heaven. This hymn tune is similar in style to the famous and gorgeous Passion Chorale. View and print the PDF here. Listen to a nice piano rendition of the harmonization here.