Piano by Joel: the Fresh Piano Blog and Podcast: November 2007

Be Thou My Vision (MacDonald Family Mix)

If you need a break from holiday music for a few minutes, I hope you'll listen to this rendition of Be Thou My Vision from the new MacDonald Family Singers CD, Power in the Blood. It's an honor when others perform my arrangements, and Carol MacDonald does a phenomenal job on the vocals. You'll find the original arrangement and score in this post from 2005. Also, Kim and Judy Smith performed their unique take in this 2006 post.

Try to catch the MacDonald Family Singers in concert sometime. These guys travel the U.S. in their tour bus, performing their special brand of Christ-centered music, and giving away thousands of CDs. They also offer plenty of free music downloads on their web site at http://www.macdonaldfamilysingers.com.

Enjoy the piece! Again, it features Carol on the flute and vocals, and Laurie at the piano. Ahh, the piano.

Click Here to Listen

Ancient Sunrise, a really short duduk experiment

This very short piece (30 seconds) features an electronically sampled Armenian duduk, which has a haunting sound with an almost human quality. I was playing around with the sound and some techniques one day, and I liked the result, so here it is for you to enjoy (or not...)

I think this is my first podcast episode with no recorded piano, whatsoever. Don't worry, I'm not giving up on the ivories, just exploring (always exploring) new ways to interpret old hymns.

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Score: God Be With You Till We Meet Again

Back in March, the DaVinci Academy from Colorado Springs, Colorado performed a vocal rendition of my piano arrangement of God Be With You Till We Meet Again in Washington, D.C. Today, I'm pleased to offer you the piano score to that arrangement. If you'd like to hear the original recording, check out this post.

Click Here to Download Score (or right-click and choose "save as.")

There's Power in the Blood

Today's piece is the old late 1800's camp meeting tune, There's Power in the Blood, by Lewis E. Jones (1865-1936.) I was sitting at the keyboard one day, playing with some melodic ideas, and what resulted is this delicate arrangement. I hope you enjoy it.

Click Here to Listen