SKU: A0.1102222

By Your Tracks is a song about the impression that is left behind after someone has been there. Everyone leaves footprints in the dirt or tyre marks. What kind of imprint or legacy do we leave on others? It can be good or bad! We should always leave a fragrance of Jesus behind. This score is for piano and vocals.

SKU: A0.992361

ALT.CALLAHANS REEL

(which is actually a Slide, with a Reel interlude!)

 Fast  and lively foot-tapping neo-Celtic, at its best on electronic keyboard but also  a fun piano solo.  (Duration 8+ minutes)

 Reel Jiggery-pokery

The  song started as a jig but drank too much and reeled into 12/8 time. Properly  speaking, despite its strong 4-beat pulse, it's a Slide. Or perhaps a Double Jig. Except for the mid-section, which is really a Reel!  Needless to say, this is not for the  purists...but it's huge fun for the rest of us!

 Playing and Performing

We've marked it Advanced Intermediate. It's the indicated speed which makes demands!  But you can play it slower and enjoy!

On  electronic or MIDI keyboard, use a percussive/plucked foundation (e.g. piano,  harp, faux guitar) with a sustained string patch (string ensemble, synth strings, viola works well, fiddle works well, most violin patches are  terrible!). For piano, you'll have to use more of the sustain pedal but not too much or it'll go all muddy on you, just like a mis-step in an Irish bog!

(Original  live and YouTube performances were on a Medeli MC 710, from 2005.  This keyboard allowed splitting and dual voices. Piano was used as foundation both above and below the split point. A  loud viola patch was used as the second voice on the upper part of the  keyboard, as the dominant fiddle sound carrying the melody.  A synth string patch was used  as second voice on the lower half, giving  the drones.)

 Add Your Own Salt and Pepper to the Score!

The  song is scored for clarity, not as a detailed demand for every possible  nuance.  It's fast, so although simple  to look at when not playing,  you'll  need to be reading the music at speed. Unless, of course, you're blessed with a  brilliant memory! 

 So  the score isn't cluttered with ornaments and fiddly bits, or lots of expression marks. Especially, it's not cluttered by a lot of suspended notes.  BUT...you will need to suspend a lot of notes as you play. Think drones running all over the place and use your  keyboard sustaining string patches to bring those drones out!  Listen to the live recordings, they'll  help.  You,  as player, have lots of freedom!  It's up to you how many additional frills, or emphasis, or drone  suspensions you throw in.

 Why alt.callahans?

SKU: A0.1202604

Amigo do peito (Friend of the chest) is a declared tribute by the composer to the guitar, his friend and faithful companion in many good and bad moments of adolescence. The piece is characterized by a mixture of rhythm and lyricism well distributed among the movements. The first of them Guitar companion uses a rhythmic motif in sixteenth and eighth notes combined with ripped lines in most of the movement, in addition to our most famous rhythm, samba. In part B, we find a slightly more lyrical melody that develops until the initial rhythmic theme is resumed. The second movement Interlúdio has a more romantic character, well singable, a simple and succinct melody that conveys a feeling of nostalgia. The third movement is an Etude in E minor, the initial idea came about as an exercise for the index and middle fingers making a downward movement from the first to the sixth string in an E minor chord.

SKU: A0.966360

Pre-heard for recorder consort is a post-minimalist work that is challenging but not unemployable to play and listen too.
This was the last work I composed by hand (written in 1997), not using a scoring program as I've done since. Thus, it does sound different. The sections in it are more disconnected and I think you can hear the almost graphic-based experiments I am conducting as I'm writing it (these are not bad things - there is a real clarity to this work). I couldn't resist making some changes to it as I was digitizing it. I've ironed out some of the crazier rhythms (that looked good on paper but were meaningless in performance) and added a repeat to make the piece more coherent.

It is about 5 minutes in duration (score and parts included).

SKU: A0.1393874

Somewhere in My Heart is a song by Scottish band Aztec Camera. It was released as the third single from their third studio album, Love (1987). Released as a single in 1988, the track peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart and became a top-40 hit in Australia and Ireland. Songwriter Roddy Frame said in 2014 that the song has been great for him, but at the time of creating the album, the song was not in keeping with the other songs. Around this time, Frame had become somewhat of a recluse, living in a remote wooden shack in Hollywood, Marple Bridge, in the hills above Manchester, going through periods of good and bad mental health, while continuing to write music, including the lyric from Westwood to Hollywood in the song. The distinctive saxophone sound is retained and towards the end is an opportunity for your star alto and tenor to solo or battle, to close out the song in the way that it is often performed live by Aztec Camera. The song is featured prominently in the 2019 film '47 Meters Down: Uncaged' and the 2020 Netflix series 'I Am Not Okay with This'.

SKU: A0.1205114

Dances of Peril is comprised of three movements. While they differ in their melodic, harmonic and rhythm languages, they are all fast, energetic, and unsettling. I imagine them as three peculiar dances in a small, mysterious party. While dance is often an act of joy and love, these dances are not. Scored for clarinet, violin, and cello, these dances involve three dancers; the relationships among them are unclear. Their motions are fast, sharp; at times, aggressive. The looks on their eyes convey suspicion. Each of them knows that something bad is about to happen, but they have to play the game. Like a good “whodunit� thriller, it is unclear who the source of danger is. And this uncertainly enhances the fear and pushes each dancer to move faster, to seize control, to deceive. Who knows how this will end.

SKU: A0.904856

Total Praise is a tune by Richard Smallwood’s.

The gospel musician wrote the song, one of his most popular, in 1996 during a difficult time in his life. His mother was beginning to show sings of dementia and a family friend was diagnosed with cancer.

 Smallwood said the song came to him in a dream.

I felt left by God, I was trying to write a pity-party song, but God pulled me to do a praise song. God said, ‘I want your praise no matter what the situation you are in, good or bad.’ It’s about trusting him.

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Total Praise è una melodia di Richard Smallwood.

Il musicista gospel ha scritto la canzone, una delle sue più popolari, nel 1996 durante un periodo difficile della sua vita. La madre cominciava a mostrare i sintomi della demenza e a un amico di famiglia fu diagnosticato un cancro.

Smallwood ha detto che la canzone gli è venuta in sogno.

Mi sentivo abbandonato da Dio, cercavo di scrivere una canzone di pietà, ma Dio mi ha spinto a fare una canzone di lode. Dio disse: Voglio la vostra lode, non importa in quale situazione vi troviate, buona o cattiva. Si tratta di fidarsi di lui.

SKU: A0.1477818

La Casa de Papel, which was named Money Heist in english, took the world by surprise with an engaging story where the audience had to pick who to root for, the bad or the good guys. But in a twisty story you start asking yourself, who are the bad guys?

The series featured the popular Italian song “Bella Ciao” which it became a sort of hymn of the show, but the main theme “My Life Is Going On” stole the spotlight for me musically. It is a wonderful song for the opening of each episode and this is an arrangement for a hybrid ensemble, mixing the lush sound of strings, flute and piano, with the power of the drums and the vocals.

SKU: A0.970761

Mike Strand, ASCAP

This is a lead sheet with lyrics, chords and guitar fret boards, for a jazz group, small, or large, with singer or solo instruments. It serves as a good basis for a variety of arrangements, contra facts, and improvisations.

The audio sample is a jazz quintet: A slow swing jazz accompaniment from iReal Pro, combined with my duet tunes from Finale PrintMusic. In this sample, a flute takes the accompaniment (treble clef), with a baritone sax in the bass clef.

The main tune (bass clef) is accompanied, making this an unusual duet lead sheet. For example, a flute may accompany a baritone singer.

An option is to interchange the voice roles (e.g., main tune octave higher, accompaniment octave lower), or use one of the tunes of the duet by itself.

I wrote this piece in honor of immigrants, in recognition of the courage it takes to move to a new country and learn a new language. New immigrants often go through difficulties and setbacks, including persecution from citizens of their adopted country. This, despite the recent immigrant ancestry of most of the persecutors, notably in the USA.

In the subtitle of Immigrant Blues, I recognize my own immigrant ancestors, and also Anders Lundegård, who, like my paternal grandparents, moved to the USA from Sweden. Anders helped me with this piece, with his reviews and comments.

**Here are the lyrics for Immigrant Blues:

1.

Moving to the U. S., far away.

Life here is so bad, I will not stay.

Talked to Mom and Dad, they said OK.

I want to make a place for them some day.

2.

First time in the States was no picnic.

Half the time no work, and I got sick.

Some folks try to help, while others scoff.

I have friends, but others put me off.

3.

Looking bright and able, that’s my plan.

Taking ESOL classes when I can.

Learning English is no easy chore,

And I want my folks here, that’s for sure.

And I want my folks here, that’s for sure.

Oh, yeah!