You folks with your pumpkins and Halloween in August, that’s nothin’! In the music publishing biz, it’s Christmas! I’m trying to get a few of my solo piano Christmas arrangements out there. Here’s the first. The others will follow in quick succession.
If you or your student would like a copy of the sheet music, it’s available at either of the following links.
There is a front-page article in today’s Tampa Bay Times about James Barnes, whom Governor DeSantis is planning to execute today. Here is a link to the story:
It contains information on his case, and on his interactions with German filmmaker Werner Herzog.
Remember the vigil this afternoon:
– Time:5:00-6:00 PM on Thursday, August 3 – Location: the northwest corner of Ulmerton Road and 49th Street Northin mid-Pinellas County, a busy intersection near the Pinellas court and jail complex. – Park in the vacant lot behind Checkers. Signs provided or you can bring your own. Those gathered for the vigil will meet for dinner at a nearby restaurant after the vigil. – If the execution is stayed, the vigil will be cancelled.
A song for a wedding, civil union, or partnership blessing. Words by Rev. Lucy Lee Jones, Ph.D., tune by William Walker in his Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, harmonized and arranged by Hilton Kean Jones. This video is the piano accompaniment. The vocal part is displayed in split screen. hope to get a vocal demo of this recorded eventually. For now…you gotta sing that part! 🙂
Not that many years ago both churches and social movements dived into figuring out how to make use of social media and digital technologies to extend their reach and grow their numbers. Everyone wanted to go viral and experience the apparent promise and magic of instant “success.” With time, has come reflection. With social movements, scholars now point to how movements like the Arab Spring successfully used what were then new technologies to bring huge numbers of people into the streets, but such movements did not have the infrastructure and capacity needed to sustain change over time.New and ever evolving technologies should indeed be used, but they need to be used with old technologies—“technologies” as old as the Bible. These technologies have a magic of their own, but the magic is not instant. It requires time and work. It requires bringing people into relationship. It requires developing a tangible interdependence between persons with diverse interests, viewpoints, and backgrounds while they work together toward shared ends.In studying movements, scholar Hahrie Han notes that it is in this relational, interdependent work that transformation happens. Movement participants grow and develop in remarkable ways. Commitments are deepened. New skills are acquired. Confidence is gained. At the same time, longer lasting movements are formed and collective action is sustained. Han notes that in such ways “the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.”Here is where the wisdom of Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 becomes so timeless: “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” It is the potential of the body of Christ that gets me excited. It is why I see so much promise in all of the congregations and church members working now to collect Climate Hope Postcards. Together, we can be part of an effort that lasts more than a moment.
reposted with the permission of the author — many of the elements of the email may be found in various articles at https://www.ucc.org/pollinator
This arrangement of mine is a musical reflections on the hymn tune, Resignation, a melody of anonymous authorship from William Walker’s “Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion” (1835).
The second “verse” of the arrangement is a minor key treatment of the melody. It returns to a more upbeat character on the “third” verse, and an even more positive statement on the “fourth” verse.
I don’t have videos of me playing a lot of these solo piano arrangements. I recorded them before I got into the practice of making videos. When there’s no video, I’m using a score synchronized with my audio recording.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 