in the bleak midwinter
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Enjoy a new setting of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ and on this Twelfth Day of Christmas enjoy a playlist of arrangements and improvisations I’ve shared over the past years.
Read Moreaway in a manger
Every Christmas for the last few years I've been inspired to re-arrange a carol or two for solo piano. It's a creative challenge to take something well-known and make it my own. It also gives me a chance to dig deeper into the text and see how it might come alive through sound. It's a bit of theological exploration through music that first emerges through improvisation.
This year I found myself drawn over and over to Away in a Manger (to the tune MUELLER) as well as Shirley Erena Murray's sobering adaptation, Away and In Danger.
Read Moreand he tells me I am his own
Last spring, I collaborated with mezzo-soprano Kristin Gornstein to present a Mother's Day recital that included two settings of the 19th century Czech poem, Songs My Mother Taught Me.
The poem got me thinking about the songs my mother sang that shaped my musical and spiritual life, and inspired me to compose a piano arrangement of C. Austin Miles' beloved Gospel hymn, In the Garden. Sentimental, yes, but I remember it as one of my favorite lullabies and it's a tune I will always associate with my childhood. The text has also served as an ongoing reminder that I am God's beloved and invited to an intimate, tender relationship with Jesus.
Read Moreit came upon a midnight clear
Merry Christmas, friends!
I've been reharmonizing and improvising on carols over the past years and the latest is this setting of 'It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.' It departs quite a bit from the original setting but I think the unexpected harmonic turns and moving inner lines express this beautiful carol in a new way.
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