Well, I did it. At 1:32 tonight (er... tomorrow morning I guess) I dotted the last "i" and crossed the last "t" and checked the last link (though I most certainly missed a few) ... and finished all the material for this extensive update. My arm is sore from patting myself on the back, so of necessity I'll keep this nice and concise, in list format. If you want more details on the songs and the musicians, see the individual song pages, and/or this blog entry. Okay... here goes:

New music added to the site this time:

Because He Spoke to Me (Solo, SATB)
His Tears Were Mine (Solo)
Shards of Glass (Solo with harmony)
All Through the Night (Solo with harmony)
Once Too Often (Solo... a love song! Bit unusual for this place isn't it?)
The Prodigal (Solo, SATB)
Be Still, My Soul (Solo with harmony... an SATB is on my to do list!)
He is There (Solo)
What I Believe (Solo)

These songs are all included on a new CD titled "What I Believe," with vocals by James Loynes (who co-wrote a couple of the songs as well). It also includes new renditions of The Greatest Among Us, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, An Angel to Watch Over Me, I Knew My Father Knew, Built Upon the Rock, and To Those Who Came Before Me. Some of these are quite different revisions, like "Built... " (with sax! cool...) and "An Angel..." (guitar accompaniment).

James works his usual magic on them, along with some great muscians.... Anne Lauritzen (flute); Ramona McConkie (cello); Ryan Janus (sax); and Sarah Crowther (violin).

All the sheet music is here for free download (.pc files too!); the tracks are free to stream (and there's a playlist with the whole album on it) but MP3 downloads cost a little this time--not much, but something to try to recoup some rather hefty costs. I also tried a couple of different things this time: a songbook that has everything on the disk (though it's all still downloadable too), and bulk pricing on the CDs. If it turns out that these are things people like, I'll continue to make them available.

Finished! I'm going to bed happy... tomorrow the euphoria will really set in. :)

October 10, 2011: New this time is a song called "A Place in His Arms." There are two versions--a simple one for children's voices, and an arrangement for SSATB choir with child soloist that includes a third verse. The MP3 recording is of the latter, and the solo is sung by Timothy Jack--a young man with a remarkable voice!

Over the past few weeks, I've had quite a few requests for a choral version of "Bless This Land," so the other new addition this time is a simple SATB hymn version. Again, thanks to Michael Moody for this hymn setting.

Happy October!

June 29, 2011: In honor of the upcoming US Independence Day holiday, today I'm adding a new song titled "Bless This Land." It's a simple prayer for peace for our land, and for every nation on earth.

The music was written by Michael F. Moody, long-time chairman of the LDS church's music committee and current temple president of the Papeete Tahiti Temple. The demo recording features vocals by newcomer Annabelle Smith, a beautiful alto who lives here in Colorado Springs.

The lyrics are the only contribution I can claim to this one! It's a privilege to work with such people, and to find them not only talented and capable, but humble and gracious as well. The world is still full of very good people.

I'm working on transferring the site and all the MP3s to a new server, so until the change happens, the new site DVD is still on hold, and many of the old MP3 links don't work. The download links are still fine though, and the MP3 playlists are also functional. ***why does everything take so long???*** Thanks for your patience!

November 30, 2010: Happy Christmas! As usual, the Christmas tree went up the day after Thanksgiving at our house, though I think my daughter's went up some time in October. (Wow, I thought I was bad!)

This year's Christmas Card Carol is a lullaby-like solo called "Lying in a Manger." It's part of a longer program I'm working on for Easter, so for now it's just solo voice. (Eventually it will also be SATB and have an obbligato, but I'm not there yet.) It's available both as a PDF file, and in .pc format for those who want to transpose it. There are two MP3 demos this time, one in James Loynes' amazing baritone, and one by a beautiful new soprano, Anca Miriam Rus.

The way the recordings are provided for thisone is a foreshadowing of things to come. Soundclick's unaccountable need to change all the streaming links pushed me over the edge, and beginning in January I will be hosting the MP3s on my own space. The recordings for this song are my "test drive" of the system. More on the subject in January.

For you Primary leaders, as you know I currently do not have a demo of the simplified version of "If I Listen With My Heart." However, there is a Church-produced demo available from the music section of the lds.org website, though it isn't yet listed in the Primary section. I hope that will help some of you who will be learning and teaching this song in January.

I had hoped to have the new site DVD done by now... it's not. Life (and computer problems... and Soundclick links... and... ;) just keeps getting in the way. It will probably be January before that project is ready as well. "The faster I go, the behinder I get" just may be the title of my next song. :)

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas season. May your hearts be a little warmer, your days a little brighter, and your life a little better each day, for love of a Baby lying in a manger.

September 27, 2010: The score to the closing hymn arrangement from this weekend's General Relief Society meeting and broadcast, "The Spirit of God," is now available, for SSAA, piano and flutes.

On another note (no pun intended... well, okay, yeah it was), I get quite a few requests from people who need to have their music transcribed either from handwritten manuscript or from recordings. I don't do that kind of work, so here's an alternative for you if you need such services. Brenda Crofts Reep is a professional music transcriptionist you can hire to help you get your notes on paper. She'll work with musicians at any stage in their careers--from beginners to seasoned vets. I've seen her work (you probably have too if you've used music by Lyndsi Housekeeper), and it's very high quality. Contact her at brendareep@yahoo.com or 1-435-632-3143. I've also added her information to my Links page if you should need it later on.

My website facelift continues. It's taking awhile...I had no idea how many pages this place had grown to. It's looking like it won't be finished until the end of October. Until then, you may run into a dead link here and there. Thanks for your patience!

August 14, 2010: You may have noticed... my site is getting a facelift. I won't send an update out about it, but you'll see it morph over the next few weeks. I'd like to make some of the menus and lists more useful, upload all the Personal Composer scores for those who need to do transpositions, and just generally tidy the place up.

I've tried to do some cross-browser testing online, but obviously I can't test every page on every system in every browser. If you find that something isn't working well for you, and you'd like to let me know I'd appreciate it. My e-mail is: sallyRemoveThis@RemoveThisToodefordmusic.com

Until all the pages are updated there will undoubtedly be a few dead links. Don't worry about letting me know, unless it's something you need right away. I hope to have it completely finished by the time BYU is 5-0... (yeah, wishful thinking!) or, more likely, the end of September. :)

July 6, 2010: Though I have a few new selections in the works, none is quite ready yet. Instead, this update is a shout-out to some amazing people who have contributed greatly to the translation section of the site.

First is a set of eight recordings in Spanish, sung by Allison Weiss. Allison has provided scores for each of the translations, and her MP3s are free for you to download on her site. Listening to Allison has been such a pleasure! In the hope that you'll enjoy Allison's beautiful voice as much as I have, she is now the featured performer of the month.

Next are several translations into the Czech language, done by Martin Prachar. Martin has provided a website where Czech-speakers can access translated scores and listen to MP3 choral practice tracks. Martin often does translating for the LDS Church, and his translation of "If I Listen With My Heart" will be used in the 2011 Primary program. A big thank you to Martin for his great work.

The last contribution (but certainly not least!) was submitted by Jorge Aguirre of Medellín, Colombia. He and others have translated the "Come Unto Christ" cantata in its entirety into Spanish--an astonishing amount of work, for which I am truly grateful. Jorge says most of the work was done by his friends in Perú, so to those unnamed contributors... many thanks!

April 7, 2010: Happy spring! Well, up here in the North anyway. However, I woke up this morning to snow, making me wonder which half of the globe I actually live on!

New this time is a song intended to honor dads. It's equally applicable to moms, so you're welcome to change the pronouns if you want to sing about mothers. The inspiration for the lyrics came from an LDS General Conference address in which a speaker asked, "Do your children know that you know?" I tried to put myself in my kids' place, and though I wasn't objective enough to come up with what they might think of their mom, I've always known their dad was their hero, and that they knew of his faith in Christ. Thank goodness.

The song is titled, "I Knew My Father Knew," voiced for Solo or SSAA, though the SSAA can also be used as a treble duet (SA). Again, James Loynes provided the vocals, and a piano track is also available. The song is suitable for either Mother's Day or Father's Day... obviously, I lean toward the latter.

There are also quite a few new translations (a department in which I am woefully behind), a few new YouTube videos, and a new Spanish recording of "An Angel To Watch Over Me" by Arnaldo Heresmann, who is this month's (er...or two month's... or three... or...**blushes**) featured vocalist.

December 16, 2009: Along with all my warmest wishes for a joyful and safe and carol-filled Christmas season, here's my Christmas Card Carol for the year... kinda! (It was supposed to be last year's, but my Perfectionist Alter Ego won and it had to wait for this year.) It's titled "My Gift, My Offering." There's a demo with vocals by James Loynes, and an accompaniment track as well.

Happy Christmas!

November 22, 2009: 'Tis the season to be grateful... I'm thankful for kids who get to come home for the holidays, a new calling (yep!) as Primary Music Leader, good friends, beautiful voices and generous spirits.

I just finished working up all the material on James Loynes' new album titled, "How Can I Keep From Singing?" -- a very apropos title for an album by this amazing vocalist!-- so there are quite a few new things this time. Again I'll do this list-style to keep it simple:

The new scores are:

• The title track, "How Can I Keep From Singing," a beautiful old American folk-style song that James and I arranged together, with voicings for Solo, SATB, SSAA and TTBB;
• "Heaven's Embrace," a song about the comfort found in prayer, voiced for Solo only;
• "Everywhere I Go," my contribution in support of the 2010 Youth Theme, voiced for Solo, Duet or two-part chorus.

Then there are a few new arrangements of existing material:

• "Write Thy Name Upon My Heart," for solo or men's voices, with a new accompaniment and a new set of obbligatos for flute and cello;
• "If the Savior Stood Beside Me," also for solo or men's voices, also with a new accompaniment and flute obbligato, with the addition of two new verses--one about prayer and one about service;
• A new set of obbligatos for oboe and cello for "I Have Not Seen, Yet I Believe;"
• "A Believer's Prayer" for TTBB, with a new obbligato for a low C instrument.

Other tracks on the CD include: "For Me Alone;" "I Come To Him;" "Abide With Me;" "Cast Your Burden On the Lord;" "Whole Again;" two duets with Allyse Smith Taylor, "How Great Is the Miracle" and "Because He Lives;" and "Sweet Is the Work." The melody and arrangement for "Sweet Is the Work" is James' creation, so the recording and score are available from his site at www.jamesloynes.com

James is one voice I never tire of listening to. Treat yourself to a few of these recordings, or listen to them all on James' playlist. Accompaniment tracks for each of the selections are available, most as MP3 downloads, and all on CD.

As you can probably guess, these things have kept me busy enough! But I have managed one small offering for the Christmas season--an obbligato to Hymn #208, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, for one or two flutes.

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving week (US), and a wonderful week full of thanksgiving wherever you are!

 

October 22, 2009:  Wow... does that really say October? This year has gotten away from me. New this time is... well, a whole bunch of stuff. :) Over the summer I spent some time working with LDS singer Allyse Smith Taylor, pianist and arranger Marvin Goldstein, and many other talented musicians to help Allyse produce her latest album, "My All Is Thine." This is a really lovely collection of her interprations of quite a few songs found on this site--some old, some new. Since there are so many, I'll do this list-style:

Here are the new songs:

• The title track, "My All Is Thine," written especially for the project. It's available for solo, SATB or SSA.
• "Anthem Of Praise," which is a setting of the words to "All Creatures Of Our God and King" by Francis of Assisi, combined with a few additions of my own and a new melody. It's available for solo or SSAATB.

These existing songs were used on the album, and new MP3 recordings are available for each:

• The Master's Voice
• How Great Is the Miracle (duet with James Loynes)
• I Glory In My Jesus
• Write thy Name Upon My Heart
• This Is How I Know
• If I Listen With My Heart
• Prayer Is the Soul's Sincere Desire
• Gethsemane
• Whole Again
• Because He Lives (duet with James Loynes)

Allyse also included "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" on the disk, though it appeared on her last album, because, she said, the album wouldn't be complete without it.

Because this is a commercial album, most of the tracks are not downloadable free. The price of producing such a project is amazing, and the artists who are brave enough do it need to recoup their costs. The recordings are, however, downloadable for a nominal charge from Allyse's website. (Allyse wanted to offer a track as a gift to my site visitors, so the recording of "I Glory In My Jesus" is downloadable free. Thanks Allyse!)

Treat yourself to a few of these beautiful tracks, or if you want to listen to them all, try Allyse's MP3 playlist.

(Before you ask... Marvin's arrangements of these songs are not yet available. Rumor has it, a songbook is in the works, and I promise to let you know when/if it happens.)

 

March 10, 2009: A couple of odds and ends this time:

--An Angel To Watch Over Me, arranged for Men's voices--although the arrangement will also work for any solo voice. A demo recording with vocals by James Loynes is available, as well as an accompaniment track.

--He Sent His Son has a new obbligato part for two C instruments, added for the YW broadcast at the end of the month. There's also a new demo recording with vocals by Denise Pearce, along with an accompaniment track.

February 4, 2009: New this time is a song titled "A Believer's Prayer," written to support the 2009 Youth Theme: "...be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." (1 Timothy 4:12) It's voiced for solo or unison, with optional harmony for equal voices. There's a demo recording with vocals by Jessica Nielsen Ebersohl (a beautiful young woman whose voice I first heard while she was a missionary in my area), and also a piano accompaniment track.

Also new is a lovely recording of "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" performed by Allyse Smith Taylor and Marvin Goldstein. I think you'll love Allyse's beautiful voice and Marvin's superb interpretation--I did!

December 16, 2008: It's been a snowy couple of weeks, and though snow is certainly very Christmassy, it tends to keep me home by the fire (usually with hot cocoa to warm up the inside too) not getting much accomplished. So I spent these particular snowy days concocting this arrangement of "Once In Royal David's City" for intermediate solo piano. It's a bit late to be useful for performance, but you pianists can still play it for fun.

There are also several new recordings for your Yuletide enjoyment:

"Beautiful Savior," performed by Heather Prusse;
"Baby In a Manger," performed by newcomer Denise Pearce; and
"Born Is the Light Of the World" and "Love Knows No Borders" performed by the Sydney Chamber Choir

I've also made available some new MP3 playlists for those of you who like to listen radio-style. You'll find links to them on various pages throughout the site, as well as on the new "MP3 Playlists" page.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas season!

*****

Addendum: Since this update, I've also added two new recordings (in Spanish) by singer Arnaldo Heresmann of Viña del Mar, Chile--"O Ven, O Ven Emanuel" and "Escribe Tu Nombre En Mi."