budafulmusic

My friend ERP, over at pumpkinankles.edublogs.org (see blogroll to the right), recently posted a hilarious happening about game that a group of friends and I got together and played recently. The game is called story, where you write your fragments of a few sentences on several different pieces of paper with your friends (She explains it better and more entertainingly on her site, along with some of the best of the results). We played the game this past week and it was a blast. I look forward to many good times ahead with that inexpensive and mind challenging game. I also learned (and mastered) the art of making CC cookies exclusively out of eggs.

Lots of things have been happening lately, mainly being back home in WI and starting a new semester…wait, starting my last semester in grad school. Wow, that felt strange writing that.

One main thing of importance is that my recital has been transported from my mind onto paper. Yes, now I begin the long (but not too long) stage of editing and practicing the music for performance in March. I’ll be sending parts to my performers soon, of course, my music is almost guaranteed to change after the first couple rehearsals but that is a given.

Other things of interest are that I am composing music for a short film for a senior project. I am genuinely  exited about this as I get to delve into my favorite type of music in the soundtrack genre: soft drama.

Also on the to do list is a cello choir arrangement that I am putting together for performance at BJ’s own Bible Conference. I am arranging the old hymn tune: EVENTIDE (Abide with me)

Such a round number. 100, a number which here translates into the amount of days left until my recital on March 21. One hundred days from now. I have written the music and now am feverishly perfecting it and trying to find people to perform it, which is turning out to be more of a headache than I anticipated. People don’t seem to be as worried about it as I am. I’m just glad to have the initial stage of composition done. There’s still a long way to go though…

As the recital date draws closer and as things become more set in stone I’ll reveal more information about various aspects of the recital. Here’s a part of what I have planned:

A part of the recital will be centered around the topic of death, I’ve set several secular poems that have various philosophical viewpoints about death (ie, hopelessness, despair, uncertainty, grief, and solace). The recital will be book-ended with two sacred choral anthems, one of which is, “It is not Death to Die” which reminds us as Christians of our hope of eternal rest; where we”ll “reign with Him on high”. This poetry struck me the moment that I saw it, which doesn’t usually happen to me. The text is available on www.cyberhymnal.org or you can read it here:

I actually wrote this several days but haven’t posted until now. Today, Dec. 5, I’ll be accompanying on the piano for the Help @ Home live show hosted by BJ Distance Learning, making this my 3rd (technically 2nd) appearance on the show. It takes place at the same time as the BJU lighting ceremony on the front of campus, so I’ll have to miss that event.

I’ll be accompanying a soprano called Kera O’Bryon who is traveling to Greenville from Washington D.C. Her father will also be speaking for the bulk of the show. Kera will be singing O Holy Night as well as a medley of Christmas songs arranged by myself: O Come, O Come Emmanuel, I Wonder as I Wander, and Away In A Manger. We practiced this morning and I was impressed by her beautiful voice. I’m playing by ear, so who knows, one day it might end up in a future arrangement that I compose.

Looking forward to the show. It starts in 2 hours…

This past winter/spring, I had the privilege of composing the music for a video put out by ShowForth videos. I’ve posted an audio file from the score in a previous post. I wrote 23.5 minutes of music for the documentary which has a timing of approximately 35 minutes. It would be a fine video to show in a school class room, in church for sunday school, or even for home viewing.

The Great Awakening: Spiritual Revival in Colonial America was release on 11/20 and the BJU Collegian that same week wrote an article about the video. I’m glad that it is finale released. I have already heard good comments from the producers and even received my own complimentary copy of the DVD.

You can watch a video trailer on the BJU Press website which also features music written for the video.

My good friend at Zwei Augen zu veil has just revamped his site. You can find an updated link to the site in the blog roll to the right. He has this cool playlist embedded into his site from www.seeqpod.com. I need to learn how to do that.

In my previous post I mentioned that I accompanied for a violin recital and performed one of my own arrangements. Well the recital was recorded and I have been graciously given permission by the performer to post it here. I have played this arrangement several times for weddings and special occasions. If you’d like to play it for your special occasion just contact me from the commissioning page. Violin, Viola, and Cello transcriptions available.

Fairest Lord Jesus

Just want to make you aware that I am accompanying for a violin recital this next week. On Tuesday (9/9) I will be collaborating with my friend Meg Johnson. As you can see on the poster below, Meg will be playing a sacred violin solo that I wrote a few years back entitled “Fairest Lord Jesus.” Originally for viola, I re-transcribed it for violin. It is a beautiful arrangement that lends itself easily to weddings and other special occasions.

The other pieces in the program are as follows: Allegretto from Sonata No. 15 in B-flat Major, K.454 by Mozart; very zippy, it took several practices before it finally came together. Violin Concerto No. 2, Op.63, mvt. 2 by Prokofiev; this piece is so cool, it’s an orchestral reduction so there’s lots of impossible passages but other than that it’s great piece. And finally, Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46, mvt.2 by Bruch, another allegro piece that turns the piano into an orchestra. My sacred solo will close the recital.

Here is a picture of me sitting at the piano at the Help at Home Live show. I’m being interviewed by Gary Moore, the shows host.

Today marks the first day of classes at school but since non of my classes or lessons fall on Wednesday, I just continued my work like normal. Thursday will be a different story however, as I have the majority of my classes on the TTH days. I’m taking Renaissance music history which I am looking forward to as well as a graded choirs class, both 2 credit courses.

That accounts for my “classes.” Not very much, you may say, until you factor in the other 4 credits I’m taking. 4 one on one lessons: Composition, Set Theory, Piano and Percussion lessons. Oh yeah, did I mention that I’m in choir as well? Yep, it’ll be a busy semester.