My latest recording, Bluesy Bach and Friends – Opus 5 (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik), is now released!
Form
As I mentioned in a previous post on my Mozart project, this recording is of the first movement: I – Allegro. My version of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is essentially a rock quartet, with guitar, bass, organ and drums with jazz and blues-rock influences. This is definitely one of my longer recordings, clocking in at about 8 minutes 20 seconds. I have heard that Spotify favors shorter music because I suppose people have shorter attention spans these days due to the clickable nature of the Internet. But I didn’t do this to please Spotify. I arranged and recorded this because I like what Mozart did and wanted to experience his music through my own interpretation.
Where it’s At
You can get your own copy and listen to Bluesy Bach and Friends – Opus 5 (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik) from wherever it is most convenient for you. It is available in my music store. It is also on CD Baby or through digital distributors like Amazon, iTunes, Spotify and many more!
Sheet Music Coming
As you can see from Mozart’s score it was written for Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello and Contrabass. My arrangement is for Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, Hammond Organ, and Drums. Coming soon will be the sheet music for my complete score.
Here is the cover artwork for the tune. I think it’s pretty cool!
Here is an alternate version of the art that I considered using but it scared me just a little too much to go with!
Today I am releasing another song, Mary’s Gift, in my series of music that will make up my Christmas album that I plan to have ready by October or early November!!!
Releasing Christmas music in the summer isn’t so crazy after all, at least that’s what an article in Fortune magazine implies as they found that Pandora experiences a surge in mid-summer holiday music listening.
This month’s song is called Mary’s Gift and it celebrates in song the Blessed Virgin Mary’s humility and openness to God’s will, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) and God’s love for the world, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Go to the Music Store to download a copy. A video is available too!
This song, All Things New, is a song that I composed about a year ago. One week, a Sunday Mass reading included part of the book of Revelation, chapter 21 and the Lord’s promise to make all things new resonated with me and stayed in my mind. At about the same time I had become interested in Motown artists and music and the combination of the two ideas resulted in my song, All Things New, to which I tried to give a bit of a Motown vibe. I hope you like it!
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; 3 and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life. 7 He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be my son.
I’ve actually gotten back into writing, composing and recording music again. For a while I seemed to do this in fits and spurts. I used to get started on an idea and get it about halfway done but then I’d get distracted usually by work issues from my day job or vacation would come up and then the project would sit and gather dust.
However, in December I got a new idea. In many things I become very productive and efficient when I have a task list, to-do list or project plan to work against and keep myself accountable. So I got the idea in December, after listening to huge amounts of Christmas music and attending the Seattle Symphony’s production of Handel’s Messiah, to produce my own album of Christmas/Holiday music. After that, I began making my plan and creating “the list”.
Since starting in December I have five (5) songs that I am actively working on and of these three are essential complete. The first of these I will be releasing as a single before and in time for Easter: My own arrangement, performance and recording of the Hallelujah Chorus. My Hallelujah Chorus is a Pop/Rock version inspired by Mannheim Steamroller/Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
After going to the full production of Handel’s Messiah it was amazing to me that George F. Handel wrote, not just the Hallelujah Chorus, but the entire Messiah, including the orchestral and choir parts after receiving the text from Charles Jennens in a breathtaking 24 days! Talk about focus! If I could only have 10% of his focus.
