| A Mighty Fortress Is Our God - Inspired by Jon
Schmidt, Aaron Waite, Jason Tonioli, and Sally DeFord, whose
hymn arrangements I use regularly for prelude music at church, I
decided to finally do an arrangement of my own for solo piano. |
| Boomerang (Mason’s Theme) - I think a good word to describe Mason is
“tenacious.” When she gets
focused on something, such as a school project, planning the details of a
birthday party, or finding a lost book, she sticks to it with intensity until
the project is completed or the problem is solved. Like a boomerang, she will keep coming back to the issue at
hand. The repetitive phrases in
the first section of this piece remind me of Mason persistently coming to me
with a request, not willing to give up until every possibility has been
exhausted. Mason is also the one
most likely to physically and verbally express affection – when she comes
home after having been away for a while, she usually greets me with a hug and
tells me how much she missed me. I
hope she’ll continue to look forward to coming home as she grows up and
spreads her wings.
|
| Bridge to Tomorrow (Anne’s Theme) - Right about the time I was
starting this project [the Family Suite], I had a dream in which I was
sight-reading a new piece of music. When
I woke up, I could still see the first couple of measures in my mind, and that
became the inspiration for this piece. I chose the title because writing music has been the
beginning of a new and exciting part of my life. |
| Cayo Coco Island -
Cayo Coco is an island in central Cuba, linked to the mainland
by a stone road. It's a paradise of sandy beaches,
crystal-clear waters, coral reefs, and birds such as the wild
flamingo and the Coco (coconut) Bird, after which the island was
named. Cayo Coco is known for its luxury hotels, but also
for its preservation of the natural ecosystem, keeping its
virgin atmosphere isolated from the modern world. The
samba rhythm of this piece seemed to fit nicely with the islands
of Cuba and the name is catchy and fun to say. It's
definitely a fun piece to play as well! Maybe someday I'll
get to take a vacation on Cayo Coco Island... |
| Crossing the Waters - For my first attempt at writing a song with
words, I found a poem by Sheila Kindred published in a children’s magazine
that seemed to be a good candidate for music.
After the piece was written, I was able to contact Sheila and share it
with her. She said she had
actually envisioned the poem as a song when she wrote it!
I did a SAB arrangement for our church choir and two of her daughters
were able to come to McMinnville to hear it performed.
|
| Dance #1 and
Dance #2 – These were my first two compositions long enough to really
be considered songs, although I never did come up with real titles for them.
|
| Danse de Pigeonneau – At the county commissioners’ office where I
work, it’s been an amusing thing to witness the efforts of county officials
to live peaceably with the pigeon population in a historic three-story
building. So in their honor:
Dance of the Young Pigeons (it sounds better in French, of course). |
| Drifting (Traci’s Theme) - Traci is a quiet person – someone who
takes her time letting you get to know her.
In that way, she reminds me of myself when I was young.
Her calm and peaceful nature makes me think of the way a leaf follows
the gentle flow of a meandering forest stream, sometimes riding the current
steadily along and other times drifting into a calm pool along the stream’s
edge for a time before catching the current once again.
This piece, while gentle and peaceful, is contemplative and reveals the
quiet hopes and feelings of a young woman facing the world of adulthood, with
its joys and struggles. |
| Froggy Went A-Courtin' (A Wedding Disaster Story) -
Although I remember listening to this song on a Burl Ives record
as a kid, I didn't remember much more than the first
verse. When I looked up the lyrics online, I was quite
entertained to read about all their wedding adventures... and I
really didn't remember that both the bride and groom got gobbled
up by other animals by the end, at least in one of the versions
I found! I also found great recordings of the song by both
Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. I envisioned Froggy
swaggering around with a little bit of a cocky attitude, so I
did this piece in a gospel/blues style. |
| Family Suite – My project during 2008 was
writing a suite of diverse pieces, one for each member of the family, trying
to capture their individual personalities in the music.
It was impossible to keep the family from hearing the pieces as they
were being written and recorded, but I loved seeing and hearing the reactions
on Christmas as they each opened their personalized sheet music and CD of the
entire collection and realized which piece was theirs.
The Family Suite includes Boomerang, Bridge to Tomorrow, Drifting,
Lilypad Lullaby, March of the Rubber Duckies, Un Poco Loco, Walk the Dog, and
Zero to Sixty. |
| Get
Down! Goes the Weasel – Although there are different
versions of the lyrics out there, everybody learned "Pop!
Goes the Weasel" as a kid (didn't they?). Since I
didn't start listening to popular music until the 80s, I kind of
missed out on the funk era, but fortunately we have several
compilation CDs around that gave me some ideas on how I might
give Mr. Weasel a 70s makeover. I had fun both writing it
and playing around with different sounds on my keyboard to get a
combination we all liked. |
| I Have Two Little Hands –
Our family has enjoyed listening to the soundtracks from movies
such as "The Singles Ward" and "R.M.," which
take favorite hymns and Primary songs and put them into various
contemporary styles. This swing arrangement was inspired
by the soundtrack to "Mobsters and Mormons," a style
that lends itself well to solo piano. |
| I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day –
Originally published as a poem in 1866, the lyrics to this song
were written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It became a
carol sometime after 1872 when it was set to a melody composed
by a well-known English organist, John Baptiste Calkin.
Another familiar version was later composed by Johnny Marks,
composer of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
Since I like both versions, I decided to use them both in this
arrangement. Calkin's version is the first one you
hear. Reading some background on this song, I learned that
Longfellow wrote this poem during a very dark and difficult
period of life, following the tragic death of his beloved wife
and while his son was struggling to recover from war
wounds. The story behind the lyrics explains the despair
and grief in his words, but gives deeper meaning to the ultimate
message of the song: "peace on earth, goodwill to
men." |
| I Need Thee Every Hour/Abide With Me; 'Tis Eventide -
This actually started out as just an arrangement of "I Need
Thee Every Hour," but when I got about two pages in and was
playing around with what to do next, what came out was not
another verse of the hymn, but a natural transition into
"Abide With Me; 'Tis Eventide." The time
signature and mood of the two songs fit perfectly with each
other, and then when I started thinking about the words, I knew
it had to be. Two of my favorite hymns, together at last. |
| I Stand All Amazed – Even
though there are many other arrangements of this song out there,
I really wanted to do this one. It's always been one of
the hymns that I connect with emotionally when singing or
playing it - maybe because it's one of those written in the
first person. What better way to spend some time on an
Easter weekend than arranging a beautiful song about the
Savior! |
| Journey of Remembrance – My first composition to get a real title…
although this was the point when I discovered that coming up with just the
right title can sometimes be more difficult than actually writing the piece.
When I first played it for my husband, he was very moved by it and said
that it made him think of the Savior on his way to the Garden of Gethsemane.
One of the great things about music, especially music without words, is
that it can touch people in different ways, bringing out different emotions or
memories. |
| Juega Conmigo – Playing duets with my mom, both on the piano and on
the accordion, is one of my most favorite memories from growing up, so I
tackled the assignment to write a piano duet with enthusiasm.
I was pleased with how it turned out, but with my mom living five hours
away, I don’t have anyone to “juega conmigo” (play with me).
So eventually I rewrote the piece for solo piano and, just for fun,
added a little section not found in the duet version. |
| Lilypad Lullaby (Kerri’s Theme) - One of the great things about Kerri
is her contrasting layers of personality.
She has always been mature beyond her years, demonstrating the
responsibility, dependability, and drive to succeed more commonly associated
with an oldest child. And yet, in
her bedroom you’ll see a loft bed with a slide, a giant smiley-face mural on
the wall, and an assortment of Care Bears and Sesame Street characters.
I’ll bet she would rather take a picnic lunch and go play on the
playground for a date than do something boring like dinner and a movie.
So the image of a chorus of frogs singing a lullaby to their little
ones as darkness steals over the pond seemed very “Kerri” to me. |
| Little Niagara -
Although I've never been to see the great Niagara Falls in New
York, we have a smaller version here in Oregon with the same
name. It's a one-mile hike in off a windy forest road and
the falls surely don't compare to the more famous ones, but the
cool thing is that there are two different waterfalls within
sight of each other - the 107-foot, plunge-type Niagara Falls
and the 112-foot, segmented-type Pheasant Creek Falls. |
| Lost Lake – When our sons Ryan and Zack were 15 and 14, we got a call
in the middle of the night to tell us that they, along with a third boy, had
gone on a walk during their Scout campout and hadn’t returned.
The Scouts were camping, ironically enough, at Lost Lake near Mt. Hood.
After spending a long night alone in the woods, the three boys
eventually came out on a road the next day and were picked up by a passing
motorist. Aside from being hungry
and tired, they were fine. This
piece of music is how I imagine the lake to be early in the morning, when
it’s just getting light and all Scouts are still sleeping. |
| March of the Rubber Duckies (Dave’s Theme) - Dave is such a kid at
heart – I think that’s one reason why he gets along so easily with kids of
all ages and kids enjoy being around him.
I know he brings out my playful side and I love how the energy level in
a room increases noticeably when he comes in.
When we reserved a romantic room overlooking the beach for our
anniversary last year, the rubber ducky waiting for us in the whirlpool tub
alongside the rose petals was the perfect touch, and we had to get our own
little rubber ducky when we got home. So this piece is dedicated to my eternal companion – may we
grow old together but never grow up! |
| Master, the Tempest is Raging -
This is a favorite hymn of both my husband and my mother-in-law,
Cleo. Whenever I'm playing the piano and Cleo is around, I
can count on getting a request for this hymn. She's always
been perfectly happy to just hear me play it out of the hymn
book, but now I can play her my own arrangement. So this
one's for you, Cleo, and for your favorite son! :) |
| Michael
Row, Row, Row Your Boat Ashore - I made a list of
children's songs that I'd like to make arrangements of and
decided to start with something simple: "Row, Row, Row Your
Boat." In fact, it's so simple that it's only a
one-chord song. I was actually excited when I realized
that, though - it gave me that much more potential to get
creative and change it up. It would've made a good
arrangement on its own, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity
to merge it with another fun rowing song, "Michael, Row the
Boat Ashore." Don't let the first section fool you -
it livens up by the end of the first page! |
| My
Hero Lies Over the Ocean - Although I haven't personally
experienced having a loved one serving overseas, I know many who
have and I can only imagine how difficult it must be, not
knowing if they'll come home safely. This arrangement of
"My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" is dedicated to all of
you out there who have (or have had) family members or other
loved ones far from home while in the service of others.
May they return home safely and may your life and theirs be
blessed for the sacrifice they've made. |
| Puff,
the New Age Dragon – Little boys and magical dragons
and Autumn mist... well, I just had to give this Peter, Paul,
and Mary song a New Age musical setting. After much
deliberation on the title and possible synonyms for "New
Age," I decided to just call it what it is. Credit
goes to my husband, though, for his original suggestion: "Magique
Ébats de la Brume (An Ode to Puff)." I can't
pronounce it, but it looks cool! |
| Shadow Rider – This little piece was from a lesson on polyphony and
my attempts to have the right hand and left hand each playing different
melodies at the same time. It
reminded me of a mysterious man in dark clothing riding his horse along the
beach at night. |
| The
Lord Is My Shepherd - I get lots of opportunities to
accompany special musical numbers at church and on a couple of
occasions have adapted piano solo hymn arrangements from my
prelude collection to work as nice accompaniments. When I
was asked to accompany a women's group planning to sing this one
out of the hymn book, I couldn't find anything that would
work. So I wrote my own. Hopefully it'll be
something that others can use as well. The accompaniment
would work equally well for a vocal solo, SSA women, or the
standard four-part singing. |
| Thou, Who Created Raging Rivers – Sheila Kindred, author of the poem
I used for “Crossing the Waters,” sent me another poem, one she had
written while caring for her dying mother, and that became the basis for this
song. |
| Twinkle, Twinkle, Estrellita -
I love music in a minor key. I'm not a dark or mysterious
person, but I love the power of emotion that such music has the
ability to portray, whether it's big and dramatic or soft and
haunting. For this piece, I imagined "Twinkle,
Twinkle, Little Star" being done on a Spanish guitar.
Actually, I was originally thinking of doing "Señor Don
Gato" (a favorite in my family growing up) as the next
children's song arrangement, but I realized that I liked it too
much in its original style to change it up at all. So I
picked a different song on my list that I thought would work
well in that same style. To get in the mood, I put the "Don Juan DeMarco"
soundtrack in my CD player and woke up to that all week, plus I
had Santana playing in the car (which is nothing new for me). |
| Uirapuru -
The word "Uirapuru" (pronounced weer-ah-poo-roo,
or something close to that) is the name of both an actual
Amazonian bird (also known as the Musician Wren) and a mythical
creature. In the rain forest, the bird Uirapuru sings once
a year, when it builds its nest; even then, only from five to
ten minutes early in the morning. According to the legend,
Uirapuru's song is so beautiful that all other birds stop
singing to listen to it. Yet in another version of the
legend, a human being is transformed after his death into the
enchanted Uirapuru, breathing new life into the silent
forest. Both in legend and reality, Uirapuru is a symbol
of rarefied beauty. Click
here to listen to an actual recording of Uirapuru's song,
which was the basis of this piece and can be heard several times
throughout it. As an interesting side note, Uirapuru was
also the name of a limited edition Brazilian sports car that
came out around 1967. |
| Un Poco Loco (Ryan’s Theme) - A lot of people know that Ryan is good
at sports, a hard worker, and a dedicated student.
Many have witnessed his amazing ability to eat.
But a few of us also know and appreciate his goofy, off-beat,
spontaneous side. He brings a lot
of life, laughter, and energy to our home.
Having taken Spanish in high school, he could tell you that “un poco
loco” means “a little crazy” – and that’s meant as a compliment!
He once expressed his love for food in a variation of the song, “O
Christmas Tree,” that he called, “O Cheeseburger,” and a little bit of
that managed to work itself into this piece, in his honor. |
| Underground (Out of the Rain) - My idea for this
piece was to take a very familiar tune ("The Ants Go
Marching") and see how I could experiment with it and give
it a different feel by slowing it down, changing the time
signature for part of it, using some different chords and
harmonies under the melody, and in some sections venturing away
from the traditional melody altogether. The result is kind
of a kick-back picture of what all those ants might be doing to
while away the time underground until the rainstorm is
over. In keeping with that, the end of the piece
incorporates the line from "The Eensy Weensy Spider"
that goes, "Out came the sun and dried up all the
rain..." |
| Walk in the Light – In another experiment with polyphony, I started
with a familiar children’s song sung in our church, “Teach Me to Walk in
the Light,” and came up with an original melody that could be sung
separately and then together with the first part.
For my first-ever attempt at writing my own lyrics, and wanting them to
complement the theme of the existing text, I used Isaiah 2:5 and 1
Thessalonians 5:5 as my inspiration. |
| Walk the Dog (Kristin’s Theme) - Boogie woogie piano music has always
been one of my favorite styles to play because of its catchy rhythm and high
level of energy. Kristin, more
than anyone else in our family, can be described as highly energetic and
enthusiastic. Whether it’s a
reading competition, a talent show, or a sports season, she always gives 100
percent and seems to have no fear. She
also loves animals and was our most faithful dog-walker during the months we
had Zeus, whose personality, interestingly enough, was much like Kristin’s. |
| You Are My Sunshine/Over the Rainbow -
I wanted to do another piece in the easygoing, Jack Johnson-y
style of "Lilypad Lullaby" and it felt like a good
style for both of these well-known, old tunes. Sunshine
and rainbows... they both just make me feel happy. |
| Zero to Sixty (Zack’s Theme) - Zack loves cars.
He can tell you all kinds of car trivia, especially when it comes to
speed and power, and he seems to have had more than his share of automobile
adventures in his young life. This
piece tries to capture that love as it gradually picks up speed, involves a
race with another vehicle, tries to outrun a police car in pursuit, and ends
up in a spectacular rollover crash. But
whatever misfortunes befall him, Zack will always pick himself up and get back
on the road, undaunted and full of spirit. |
|
