Become an Insider
Get a free gift....
and get to know me
RSS
Stop and Smell the Flowers
Hey guys. It’s Chris.
Just stopping by to share some happiness with you all during this serious time that we are stuck in at the moment. While I’m sure that eventually this will pass and life will return to normal, I think it’s important to find the positive things in the situation that we are in. I hope that during these days we can focus on those closest to us – our God, our spouse/significant other, children, family and close friends – and appreciate them. God has given us the opportunity……don’t forget to stop and smell the flowers.
Chris
Daffodil Fields near Mount Vernon, Washington
Orchestral Release of Mary’s Gift
Hey guys. It’s Chris.
It’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been kind of busy running my full time, non-music, day-job business. I was also busy this past year doing something new: Composing and arranging a piece for full orchestra: The orchestral release of Mary’s Gift Symphony
The project kicked off over a year ago.
I Decided to write a piece for full orchestra inspired by my song Mary’s Gift, which is a song about the miracle of the first Christmas.
I sketched out the structure and wrote the initial harmonic arrangement on the plane while flying to Europe and back and fleshed it out over several months afterwards.
Mary’s Gift begins with a timpani roll and cymbal crash symbolic of the arrival and appearance of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary. But after this angelic entrance heralded by the timpani, the violins come in pianississimo and crescendo followed by a solo flute as Gabriel speaks gently to the virgin Mary.
Then the entire violin section plays and begins telling the story of the Holy Family and the Nativity. As the music continues the telling of the story rotates among each section of the orchestra.
Live Performance
To my delight and honor, Mary’s Gift was played live this past December by the Evergreen Community Orchestra!
Since then, I have been able to publish the conductor’s score and instrument parts with Sheet Music Plus. So….If you are interested in having an orchestra that you are involved with play Mary’s Gift, you may purchase the complete package over there at Sheet Music Plus. There is an MP3 plus a video of the music playing as it scrolls through the score.
Next, I will play for you a synthesized version of Mary’s Gift for orchestra. You can also catch this on Spotify, Apple Music and other digital music distributors.
Links to all of these places are in the show notes below.
Thanks for listening and I’ll talk to you next time!
Show Note Links:
Sheet Music Plus: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/mary-s-gift-for-symphony-orchestra-full-score-and-parts-digital-sheet-music/21670018
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4sRa17dh7Zzq522rUUECmd?si=YWaiEhBITHGzL-vQEczO7g
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/marys-gift-symphony-single/1497937578
Song for Today – Ave Maria
Music for today, December 9th. From my Bluesy Bach & Friends CD, Ave Maria. Enjoy.
ECO Holiday Christmas Concerts – Carols and Classics
Evergreen Community Orchestra has three holiday Christmas concerts, Carols and Classics, on the docket the next two weeks, beginning this Saturday. I will be playing bass for the most part, but also get to do a little guitar debut along with the string section playing Away in a Manger.
Mary’s Gift
In addition, this has been a well kept secret up to now, I have been working on and finished an orchestral arrangement of my song, “Mary’s Gift”, and it’s “world premiere” will be on Sunday, December 15th with the Evergreen Community Orchestra playing my composition! After the concert performance I will be working on publishing the score and instrument parts and making them available for purchase on this site.
When and Where
So….If you are in the Seattle area, come on out to one of these shows. It’s all free! There are three concerts to choose from:
Saturday, December 7th, 2:00 pm
Wintergreen Tree Farm (with Tim Noah!)
13606 S Machias Rd, Snohomish, WA 98290
Saturday, December 7th, 5:00 pm
City of Lake Stevens Christmas Tree Lighting
https://www.lakestevenswa.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=331
Sunday December 15th, 3:30 pm (Mary’s Gift performance on this date only)
Everett First Presbyterian Church
A Quick Intro to Christopher J.
I am Chris Hartzog and this is my website, Christopher J. Music. I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest in the Seattle, Washington area.
I’ve loved music as long as I can remember. During many years of being a special needs parent to a very high needs child with autism, I started playing guitar again and started writing music. And through that experience I learned that music not only transcends languages, it also transcends disabilities.
Today my music covers a variety of styles and instruments from folk to blues/jazz, and classical to pop-rock. I am a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, bass (electric and upright), ukulele, keyboards, and a singer and songwriter. I also enjoy playing classical music on the double bass with my local community symphony orchestra. And, I write, arrange, record and produce songs and put them on this website for people to download and hopefully share and enjoy.
Some Music
Go to the music store page for a complete catalog.
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
Some Videos
Some Photos
Some pictures and stuff
