Finally!

(This post was originally published February 3, 2014)

Something in the cold air has finally thawed my creative juices (don't think too hard about that metaphor), and I have finally gotten back into writing music! School and babies can get in the way of such things, so it was exciting to get some of it back. In early December, I started writing a song based on this awesome quote from President Monson given at my convocation:

"God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged, the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gives to us the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that we might know the joys and glories of creation."

Then, the other night, I suddenly started planning all the songs to go in my Freshman Ward Musical. At this point, I doubt I would ever finish this, but it was fun thinking of which songs could go where (even the creation song above fits in pretty nicely), and trying to remember the songs I wrote in the margins of my Theory of Analysis notebook when I got tired of adding zero to complete proofs (goodness was that really 5 years ago).

Then, last Sunday, out of nowhere, I came up with a new melody for "This Is My Beloved Son," because sometimes I don't like some of the melodies in the Children's Songbook. Then I realized that it might be possible to combine that with "He Sent His Son." It's not a perfect fit yet, but I totally call dibs on it.

And with all of this music floating around, I desperately wanted a way to share it. I had originally wanted to share things directly on my blog, but Blogger doesn't upload pdfs, so there went that idea for a few years. Then, the other day, it hit me! Dropbox!

Oh, please tell me you all have Dropbox. If not I can put things in Google Drive for you easy-peasy. But Dropbox just seemed so sleek at the moment.

Anyway, here's the link!!!

Now, for a couple disclaimers.

1. A lot of times, I am lazy, so I have left off who actually wrote the song. If anyone actually wants to use an arrangement and I don't have all the proper information, let me know so I can send a more legally correct version for you to work with. Otherwise, since I am lazy, I will leave things as they are.

2. A lot of these are boring. I showed some to Leslie, and she astutely noted, "It looks like you just copied this straight from the Children's Songbook with your own transition." That is exactly what that stake in Lindon asked for, so that is exactly what they got. That is the only reason it is transcribed. (And since the songs are publicly available on music.lds.org, I feel okay sharing them again.)

If you don't have Dropbox and want to know what's in here, or if you just want more descriptions, here's what I have so far in alphabetical order.

disconsolate-- This is my arrangement of Hymn #115 in the LDS hymnbook, "Come Ye Disconsolate." Intended for a soprano, or maybe a soprano for the first verse,  soprano/alto duet for the second, and alto for the third. Or, if a soprano wants to sing the whole thing, I can fix the third verse to be higher. Lots of arpeggios, and a slightly prettier melody than the one in the hymnbook. (And yes, all the similarities to "Where Can I Turn For Peace" are intentional. It's poetic.)

Floods_Came_Up -- one of the better mashups from my "Modern Meets Mormon" CD which only my Aunt Becca bought. Here's me playing it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ_Ljn4PeuM

mediocrity -- This one is still kind of my baby. It's the classic small fish in a big pond song, so I think even non-BYU students should appreciate it.

New! nocturne -- I wrote this when I was 18 and romantic. It has a strong beginning, but I didn't know what to do with it except take it around the circle of fifths. Perhaps someday I'll use the beginning for a different piece. Note: Since I don't have them written, feel free to insert your own dynamics. Play it as rubato as you can (but not too slowly still).

searchponder -- Okay, this one is boring. My contribution is making a fairly smooth transition between "Search, Ponder, and Pray" and "I'll Seek the Lord Early." And I suppose they're in the same key now.

sentSon -- Again, pretty boring. (I transcribe the boring ones because they're so much easier!) The cool thing I did when I transcribed this for ward choir was add harmony. The piano part is essentially the same as in the songbook, so I started to leave it off even though it comes back in with "What does the Father ask of us."

So, that's what's in there right now. If you are patient, I might get around to transcribing musical numbers, choir numbers, and songs from my YouTube Channel.  Any requests?