What we’re working on

Currently our ward choir is working on a nice SATB arrangement of Be Still, My Soul, arranged by Larry Beebe (I’m the accompanist, and I will need to work on the right hand triplets!). The Beebes are actually not far from us, up in Independence, Missouri, while we are in Lee’s Summit. Both in Jackson County.

For a funeral tomorrow I am accompanying a solo male singer and violinist on Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee, arranged by Tabernacle Choir organist Bonnie Goodliffe. It is intended for choir, but I think it would work well either for a choir or soloist/duet. It is a nice simple, but solid arrangement that can be put together quickly, although I admit I struggle a little with the C flats in the opening section since it starts in G flat major (6 flats).

So that is what we are currently working on. Please share what your choir is doing.

Updates and a new ward choir website

I have finally updated the links on the Great Sources of Choir Music page. I was looking for some arrangements for a funeral and realized that many of the links have gone the way of the web and have disappeared, or moved somewhere I cannot find. The list should no longer have any dead links. I’ve also added a link to http://freeldssheetmusic.org/ which is an amazing index where you can search across many sites!

On a positive note, I recently received a nice email from Michael Young, a music teacher, composer and member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! He recently started a site for his ward choir arrangements called The Song of the Righteous. It can be found at: http://thesongoftherighteous.wordpress.com.

Church Music Submissions

I just happened upon a great source of free LDS music at where else but lds.org! Each year the Church accepts submissions of music and then selects some that they like and they post ones you can use here: Music Selections from Past Submissions.

For choral music look under the section titled “Hymn Arrangments”  (Ann Kapp Andersen’s arrangement of Come come Ye Saints, for example).

I’m now choir pianist… long time no post!

So it has been an embarrassingly long time since my last post. I am no longer ward choir director, and went for several years as a ward choir member. Now I am ward choir pianist. For my post back from the dead I thought I would highlight a series of books that our ward choir has been using over the past few months that I’ve really enjoyed, Hymn Arrangements for the LDS Choir. We have Volume 1 and Volume 2. When searching for these, I just found there is also a Volume 3. These arrangements are by Linda Chapman and Bonnie Heidenreich, whom I did not know before playing these arrangements.

I’m highlighting these because I have been really pleasantly surprised with how creative they are and how fun they have been to put together. These are similar to the Hymnplicity or Hymnals+ arrangements in that you only need to buy a copy of the music for the choir director and the pianist — the parts are included in the book and may be copied. The arrangements have a lot of character and at the same time are not overly difficult (although some of the piano parts are challenging).

UPDATE: As mentioned in the comments, these are now all available for FREE! See http://www.chapelmusiconline.com/

Nice new find

In honor of the Olympics being in Canada, I’d like to share a site I found recently with some nice arrangements by Andrew Hawryluk, a Canadian musician:
Music By Andrew.

We were looking for a nice arrangement of Did you Think to Pray and were quite impressed by his arrangement.

Little Baby

I know this is probably too late for this season, but if you need a musical number for Christmas and would like to do something new that can be worked up fairly quickly (with a good pianist), there is a nice Christmas song in the December New Era this year: Little Baby by Traci Law. 

It is a lullaby that has a pretty melody and simple but poignant lyrics. The highest note is an E so it is in the range of a soprano or tenor. The piano part is nicely arranged, though it is somewhat difficult in that the second half is written in the key of E (4 sharps).

You can get an mp3 file of the piano and vocals: Little Baby (piano and vocals) or just the piano.

Can you name that tune?

I’ve changed the banner image of my blog to better reflect its choral theme. So, I wonder, can you name the tune I used in the image?

Rob Gardner’s “Joseph Smith the Prophet”

I am a listener of Steven Kapp Perry’s excellent podcast The Cricket and Seagull Fireside Chat, and I was excited to hear his recent interview with Rob Gardner, someone who I hadn’t heard of before.  Gardner is performing his presentation of “Joseph Smith the Prophet” with a 300 voice choir, orchestra, and soloists on April 25 and 26th, 2008 (Friday and Saturday).  I was impressed with the clips included in the podcast, and wish I lived in Utah so I could attend the performance (which is free if you order tickets at lds.org/events).

I also noticed that you can purchase sheet music of Rob Gardner’s arrangements at his nonprofit organization’s website, Spire Music. I’m not currently a ward choir director anymore, but if I were and I had a budget, I would definitely be interested in looking into these arrangements more.

A Choir Reality Show

I just saw this announcement at NBC’s website. This is definitely a first — kind of American Idol meets Ward Choir.

CLASH OF THE CHOIRS

Two-Hour Premiere, Monday, December 17 ( 8/7c ) , then airing Tuesday, December 18 ( 8/7c ), Wednesday, December 19 ( Special Two-Hours, 8 /7c ) with the final competition on Thursday, December 20 (8 /7c )

‘CLASH OF THE CHOIRS’ JOINS THE NBC HOLIDAY LINEUP WITH A LIVE FOUR-NIGHT MUSICAL EVENT – In an exciting four-night event series, “Clash of the Choirs,” will follow five celebrity artists back to their hometowns to assemble an amateur choir and prepare them to compete live in studio for the title of America’s best choir. From December 17-20 the show will feature music genres ranging from current pop hits to holiday classics and the choir hopefuls will be judged each night by viewers watching at home.

UPDATE 12/8

The show now has a website: http://www.nbc.com/Clash_of_the_Choirs/

Hmmm – looks like it is going to be really pop-py.

New discoveries

http://www.irvnelsonmusic.com – More excellent free arrangements. You can hear a recording of Silent Night at his website of his arrangement. I wish I had discovered it a little earlier this year! The arrangement would be appropriate for sacrament meeting. Good stuff.