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 Moremerry christmas and happy new year
I am grateful for the beautiful gifts 2016 has brought, including the opportunity to work alongside many of you. The work has spanned across the country, across denominations, and has included congregations of incredible diversity. And yet, a common thread has been openness to the movement of Spirit, a longing to rediscover or renew the ways we sing and worship together.
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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