Be Thou My Vision was commissioned by Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, and premiered at their fifth annual Desiring God National Conference back in September. As with all of my hymn arrangements for orchestra, I try to stay true to the tone of the text when choosing harmonies and orchestral textures. This approach presented a […]
Although I like all of The Word Became Flesh, I think Gloria in Excelsis Deo is undoubtedly one of the most exciting moments in the whole work. If you listen carefully throughout the underscores of The Word Became Flesh,, you’ll notice a distinctively exotic sound that always accompanies angels. For example, you’ll hear it in […]
I think this is one of the most beautiful hymn tunes. And Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus is one of my favorite hymn settings. I have attempted to make the musical arrangement portray the sense of longing that the Hebrew people felt as they awaited the arrival of their Messiah. This motif that you hear in […]
Unto Us a Child Will Be Born takes the longing of Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus and infuses it with a sort of sort of celebratory expression of expectation. If you listen closely, you will see that the melody in the Savior Foretold Underscore is really just an augmented (that’s a fancy music work for elongated) […]
I just completed work on my new orchestral setting of the classic hymn Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee. As I contemplated how to best arrange this piece for church orchestra, I could think of nothing more joyous than Beethoven’s original musical setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy. And so I enthusiastically embarked on a thorough […]
Recently, I had a director ask me how my and Heidi’s unique setting of Joyful, Joyful with Asifiwe Bwana came to be. So here is the story behind this unique arrangement. Randy Edwards, the director of YouthCUE, asked me to compose some new choral pieces in multicultural styles. I don’t find many up-tempo sorts of […]
Heidi and I were blessed to attend the YouthCUE Nation’s Capital performance of In His Own Words on June 29th, 2008. This concert featured a chorus comprised of almost 300 teenagers (from seven states and six denominations) accompanied by an full orchestra comprised of members of the National Symphony and Armed Forces Bands. This is […]
On September 1st of 2007, Heidi’s extended family gathered together for the burial of her Aunt Julie’s ashes. Auntie Julie, as we called her, died on November 3rd, 2006 after a year-long battle with cancer. She was only fifty-four. Even after almost a year of grieving the loss of his wife, Uncle Bill still seemed […]
Just after I finished composing and producing music for the two Great Western Bank spots, I was contacted by my good friend Stephen Yarbrough. Stephen was the professor of theory and composition at the University of South Dakota. He had been contacted by ViaGroup, a prestigious advertising firm, who was interested in using portions of […]
Right after I graduated from college, I wanted to try and find employment as a working composer, arranger, and/or orchestrator. So I packed up my things and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. My first few years there, I struggled to make ends meet as I worked, on a freelance basis, at one of the largest publishing […]