Arrangements with the piano plus other instruments.
An original piano/instrumental song. Somehow it reminds me of the last days of spring, a bittersweet farewell to the end of the early blooms. Can the rose of summer fade, The bright and blooming rose? Shall winter sweep the glade, Where its tender beauty blows? There is perfume in the air, And it steals from […]
Crafted in 1857 by John Henry Hopkins, Jr., “We Three Kings” stands as a perennial ode to the Nativity story, drawing inspiration from the biblical account in Matthew 2, where visitors from the East present gifts to the newborn Jesus. While the Bible does not specify their number or title them as “kings,” Hopkins introduced […]
“Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker,” translated as “My Heart Always Wanders,” is a Scandinavian Christmas song. Originally written and published by Danish pietist bishop Hans Adolph Brorson in his song booklet Nøgle Jule-Psalmer (New Christmas Hymns) in 1732, the lyrics have been set to a number of tunes over the centuries, with the most well-known modern […]
The vocal part of this recording is performed by Shawna Anderson Norton. The text to “O Come All Ye Faithful” was originally written in Latin (“Adeste Fideles”) and is attributed to John Francis Wade, an 18th-century hymnist. It was first published in a collection known as “Cantus Diversi” in 1751. The original four verses of […]
This is one of the first songs I ever made, back in 1997. My parents had recently bought me an Alesis keyboard (which I still have), and some notation software. I’d been experimenting with the software, learning it, and enjoying being able to hear the different instruments through the Windows 95 MIDI synth. And I […]
This song was made with a good friend back in the summer of 1998. We were messing around with Impulse Tracker, a software relic used to create digital multi-track music. You’d gather together short sound samples, create loop points so you could play a note indefinitely, and then key in notes and modulation data to […]
This is a piano/instrumental cover of “Hold Me Now” by RED. Having someone there for you, when you feel there’s no way out, can be the greatest help of all. It may be a family member, a friend, a teacher, a counselor, a therapist, a higher power, or even an unexpected stranger. No one has […]
I spent an afternoon making this in 1998, and it was meant to be a short, sappy background love song. Nothing’s been changed in the score, just some remastering of the audio quality.
This instrumental arrangement came while I was thinking about all those we’ve lost to COVID and other causes the past year. This is a tribute to those people we’ve personally known, and all those we didn’t and now will never have the chance to. In the late 1600s and early 1700s, Germany was predominantly Lutheran […]
The title of this song is a reference to the poem “The Banks O’ Doon” by Robert Burns (1791). The river Doon crosses near Burns’ hometown of Ayr, but the context behind the poem is actually from the story of Margaret “Peggy” Kennedy. Peggy was a 17 year-old girl betrothed to a Member of Parliament, […]
“Once Upon a December” is a song from the 1997 animated film Anastasia, a story about the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, and the rumors surrounding her purported escape from Communist revolutionaries in 1918 who executed the rest of the Romanov royal family. Inspired by the 1952 play and […]
Written by Chris de Burgh in 1975, “A Spaceman Came Travelling” topped the Irish charts a year after it was released. But it wasn’t until 1986 with De Burgh’s success of “The Lady in Red” that the UK took notice and it reached the top charts there, too. The idea for the song came to de […]
The words to “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” are a translation of the Catholic Latin text “Veni, veni, Emmanuel” by John Mason Neale in the mid-19th century. Their origins are very old indeed, and may date as far back as the 12th century. They were of such importance in medieval days that in monasteries a […]
Generally considered the first Canadian Christmas carol, “‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime” was written in 1640 by a Jesuit priest, Jean de Brébeuf. He set the song to a French folk tune, “Une Jeune Pucelle.” Brébeuf was ministering to the Huron natives in Ontario, and created a song in their language that used symbols […]
Thousands of American men and women were serving overseas in 1943 when the world was at war, and they would be spending Christmas far from home. As a tribute to these heroes, Kim Gannon and Walter Kent created this lovely ballad, and Bing Crosby recorded it. The song’s spirit and message touched the hearts of […]
“Mary’s Boy Child” was written by singer, composer, conductor, and actor Jester Hairston in 1956. Hairston, a grandson of American slaves, dedicated himself to preserving African-American Spirituals and their rich history. After Hairston wrote the song, Harry Belafonte made the first recording which topped the charts for nine weeks in 1957. Others have released their […]
The tune to “Dives and Lazarus” is used in many folk songs throughout western Europe, including “Gilderoy” and “Crooked Jack” in Scotland, “The Star of the Country Down” in Ireland, and “The Unquiet Grave” in England. Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged the tune in his composition Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus for the 1939 World’s […]
“Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” was composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in the early 1700s, as part of the final movement of the Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben cantata (“Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life”). The original German lyrics differ quite a bit from the traditional English lyrics, and strongly focus on […]
“Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” originates from the Polish carol “W zlobie lezy” (“He Lies in the Cradle”). In 1908, the carol was published in a book of Polish carols. 13 years later, Edith Margaret Reed wrote English-language lyrics for the song, and came up with the title “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly.” The carol reflects on […]
It’s difficult to know just how old “The First Noel” is. The song (at least the words) is thought to be of Cornish origin, and may date back as early as the 13th or 14th century. During this time, miracle plays and mystery plays — dramatic productions of Catholic saints and biblical stories — were […]
Legend says that at the stroke of midnight on the evening when Jesus was born every bell on the earth began ringing joyously together. It is said there was never a sound quite like it. The song “Carol of the Bells” probably comes from that legend. Traditionally, the song starts out soft and gets progressively […]
“Joseph’s Lullaby” is a song by the Christian rock band MercyMe that gives us a glimpse of how Joseph may have viewed the birth of his new son. The touching lyrics foreshadow the eventual ministry and atonement of the Savior, but gently reminds us that Joseph was also simply a father who loved his newborn […]
John Jacob Niles was traveling through a raucous revivalist meeting in North Carolina on July 16, 1933. A group was about to begin street preaching, when a girl stepped out of the entourage. She was unkempt and ragged, but once she started singing she had a beautiful voice. She smiled as she sang a single […]
“In the Bleak Midwinter” is based on a poem by Christina Rossetti, written around 1872. The evocative lyrics paint a picture of the Nativity in a snowy Northern landscape. The text of this Christmas poem has been set to music many times, the most famous settings being composed by Gustav Holst and Harold Edwin Darke […]
“Walking in the Air” is the only vocalization of the wordless 1982 animated film The Snowman, which is based on Raymond Briggs’ children’s book of the same name. The film is about the adventures of a young boy, who builds a snowman on Christmas Eve. The snowman comes to life, and the two fly to […]
“God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” is an old carol sung by the waits, the municipal watchmen of old England. The waits were licensed to perform the duty of singing seasonal songs to the gentry, or the upper-class citizens. The author of the carol is unknown. The song was first published in 1827 as an “ancient […]
Adolphe Charles Adam was an accomplished composer for opera, theatre, and ballet, and a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire. At the age of 27, in 1830, he had completed nearly 30 theatre productions. “Cantique de Noël,” translated to English as “O Holy Night” is one of his most famous works, done in collaboration with Adam’s […]
“Little Drummer Boy,” originally titled “Carol of the Drum,” is based on a traditional Czech carol. In 1957, Henry Onorati arranged the song for a recording by the Jack Halloran Singers, but it was not released in time for Christmas. The next year, Harry Simeone was looking for material to create a Christmas album, and […]
In 1887, James R. Murray published this verse and called it “Luther’s Cradle Hymn, composed by Martin Luther for his children, and still sung by German mothers to their little ones.” Incidentally, Martin Luther, the famous father of the Reformation, was not the author, nor was Murray. The origin is a children’s Sunday school book […]
This song, originally called “Christmas, Why Can’t I Find You,” was written by James Horner for the 2000 movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was first performed by Taylor Momsen, who played Cindy Lou Who in the movie. A different version was later co-written by James Horner, Will Jennings and Mariah Carey, where it […]
There are many songs by the name “Mary’s Lullaby,” but this particular one comes from the Children’s Primary songbook, used by the LDS Church. It is based on an old German folk tune, and is a simple sweet lullaby to the Christ child. The words were written by Jan Underwood Pinborough in 1989, with the […]
New Sheet Music: Mary, Did You Know? April 4, 2024
New Sheet Music: Little Drummer Boy March 28, 2024
New Sheet Music: There’s a Song in the Air March 27, 2024
A Fading Blossom March 3, 2024
We Three Kings December 8, 2023
Away in the Manger, by Jesse Lee Smith November 22, 2023
Be Still, My Soul: Elegy, performed by Albina Pasichnyk October 10, 2023
I Need Thee Every Hour, performed by Katherine Wallace May 23, 2023
White Christmas February 23, 2023
New Sheet Music: Were You There? February 23, 2023
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