Here is a list of my Christmas music arrangements for clarinet choir. The titles link to each song's Sheetmusicplus.com page, where you can buy the sheet music. Each piece includes both the score and all of the parts.
Bring a torch, Jeannette, Isabella (Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle)
Charlie Brown Christmas Medley
Christmas Time Is Here (from A Charlie Brown Christmas)
Deck the Halls
Gesu Bambino
Good King Wenceslas
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
In the Bleak Midwinter
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Once in Royal David's City
Quelle est cette odeur agreable?
See, Amid the Winter's Snow
The Shepherds' Farewell (L'adieu des bergers) by Berlioz
Skating (from A Charlie Brown Christmas)
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Walking in the Air (from "The Snowman")
We Three Kings of Orient Are
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
White Christmas
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Thursday, July 10, 2014
My sheet music website
Hello all. I recently created a website where I sell sheet music. It contains links to my compositions and arrangements available for sale on Sheetmusicplus.com.
Here is the website: GrayWinds Sheet Music.
It contains music for wind instruments, mostly. I may add other sheet music at a later date.
Here is the website: GrayWinds Sheet Music.
It contains music for wind instruments, mostly. I may add other sheet music at a later date.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Sheet music
I've been selling some of my sheet music on Sheetmusicplus.com, both arrangements and original compositions. Maybe when I have a few more pieces of music there, I'll organize it all on a website with links to the sheet music. In the meantime, you can have a look here.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Confessions of an alto clarinetist
During my first year at McGill, I joined the McGill Clarinet Choir, in which I played the contra-alto clarinet, an instrument that I loved. It seemed that nobody in the group wanted to play the alto clarinet. People saw it as a nasty, out-of-tune, bad-sounding instrument that was unforgiving and difficult to play. Someone would always get stuck with the instrument, and they wouldn't be happy about it.
In my second year at McGill, I was at a wind symphony rehearsal. We were going to play Ingolf Dahl's "Sinfonietta", which has an alto clarinet solo in the second movement. The conductor asked me if I wanted to play the alto clarinet in that piece. I wasn't entirely sure why he'd asked me - perhaps he'd heard that I played the contra-alto clarinet, and thought it would be a good idea to ask me if I wanted to play the alto. I was aware of the instrument's bad reputation, but I agreed to play the alto clarinet - I figured that maybe if I devoted some time to the instrument, I might be able to play it somewhat well. Besides, I'd get to play a solo in wind symphony, which I wouldn't get to do if I just stuck to the B-flat clarinet.
I rented the school's alto clarinet, and started to get to know the instrument. It was indeed difficult to play in tune. But I kept working on it. I played the solo in the Dahl piece. After that concert, I continued playing the alto clarinet in the wind symphony. Occasionally I'd get other solos. One time, I had an unaccompanied quarter-tone glissando solo in a piece by Husa. That piece was broadcast on the radio.
I came to love playing the alto clarinet. I found opportunities to play it outside of the wind symphony. I played in a trio made up of two B-flat clarinets and alto. I sometimes played alto clarinet in an orchestra, substituting for bass clarinet or saxophone parts. I found that the alto clarinet could be useful for bass lines, kind of like a bass clarinet, but more portable.
I came to love the sound of the alto clarinet. I found that it could sound almost like a cross between a clarinet and a saxophone. I found that the alto clarinet could be a very expressive instrument.
In one of my later years in the clarinet choir, I was planning to play the contra-alto clarinet, as I always had in clarinet choir. The usual start-of-year argument was going on, the argument over who had to get stuck with the alto clarinet. Feeling sorry for the instrument, and getting tired of people berating an instrument that I had grown to love, I gave up my contra-alto clarinet position and offered to play the alto.
There haven't been many pieces of music written for solo alto clarinet. For some time, I worked on a concerto for solo alto clarinet, with clarinet choir accompaniment. In the piece, I tried to show the different moods that the alto was capable of expressing. When the piece of music was finished, I performed it with the McGill Clarinet Choir. Here is a recording of the performance.
The alto clarinet is a much-disliked instrument, but I think that a lot of this animosity is unjustified. I think that more people - both listeners and clarinetists - should give the alto clarinet more of a chance.
In my second year at McGill, I was at a wind symphony rehearsal. We were going to play Ingolf Dahl's "Sinfonietta", which has an alto clarinet solo in the second movement. The conductor asked me if I wanted to play the alto clarinet in that piece. I wasn't entirely sure why he'd asked me - perhaps he'd heard that I played the contra-alto clarinet, and thought it would be a good idea to ask me if I wanted to play the alto. I was aware of the instrument's bad reputation, but I agreed to play the alto clarinet - I figured that maybe if I devoted some time to the instrument, I might be able to play it somewhat well. Besides, I'd get to play a solo in wind symphony, which I wouldn't get to do if I just stuck to the B-flat clarinet.
I rented the school's alto clarinet, and started to get to know the instrument. It was indeed difficult to play in tune. But I kept working on it. I played the solo in the Dahl piece. After that concert, I continued playing the alto clarinet in the wind symphony. Occasionally I'd get other solos. One time, I had an unaccompanied quarter-tone glissando solo in a piece by Husa. That piece was broadcast on the radio.
I came to love playing the alto clarinet. I found opportunities to play it outside of the wind symphony. I played in a trio made up of two B-flat clarinets and alto. I sometimes played alto clarinet in an orchestra, substituting for bass clarinet or saxophone parts. I found that the alto clarinet could be useful for bass lines, kind of like a bass clarinet, but more portable.
I came to love the sound of the alto clarinet. I found that it could sound almost like a cross between a clarinet and a saxophone. I found that the alto clarinet could be a very expressive instrument.
In one of my later years in the clarinet choir, I was planning to play the contra-alto clarinet, as I always had in clarinet choir. The usual start-of-year argument was going on, the argument over who had to get stuck with the alto clarinet. Feeling sorry for the instrument, and getting tired of people berating an instrument that I had grown to love, I gave up my contra-alto clarinet position and offered to play the alto.
There haven't been many pieces of music written for solo alto clarinet. For some time, I worked on a concerto for solo alto clarinet, with clarinet choir accompaniment. In the piece, I tried to show the different moods that the alto was capable of expressing. When the piece of music was finished, I performed it with the McGill Clarinet Choir. Here is a recording of the performance.
The alto clarinet is a much-disliked instrument, but I think that a lot of this animosity is unjustified. I think that more people - both listeners and clarinetists - should give the alto clarinet more of a chance.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Walk Off The Earth!
Earlier on this year, I found this video. It's a video of five people playing the same guitar at the same time! The video was made by the band Walk Off The Earth. I checked out a few of their other covers of songs, and I enjoyed them very much. I checked out the band's website, and I found out that they were coming to Montreal in September! I ordered a ticket, and the ticket came in the mail.
The Walk Off The Earth concert was September 14. What a concert!
The band played some cover songs - an up-tempo version of Adele's "Someone Like You", "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles, and, of course, the five-people-on-one-guitar song that I linked earlier in this entry. They also played many of their original songs. A few of their songs had catchy choruses that the audience could sing along to.
Most of the band members could (and did!) play multiple different instruments. When a band member was finished playing an instrument, and ready to switch to another instrument, they would toss the old instrument behind them, and a stagehand or other band member would catch it. Some unusual instruments that were played included ukulele, cigar-box guitar, and vibraslap. Also, at one point a band member played a guitar with drumsticks, and at another point in the concert, two band members played one drumset. During this song, a bunch of absolutely enormous balloons, bigger balloons than I had ever seen before, were released into the audience from the ceiling, and everyone had an amusing time batting them around. :)
Throughout the whole concert, it was very evident that both the band members and all of the audience members were having a huge amount of fun!! It was absolutely the craziest concert I have ever been to!! I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Walk Off The Earth concert was September 14. What a concert!
The band played some cover songs - an up-tempo version of Adele's "Someone Like You", "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles, and, of course, the five-people-on-one-guitar song that I linked earlier in this entry. They also played many of their original songs. A few of their songs had catchy choruses that the audience could sing along to.
Most of the band members could (and did!) play multiple different instruments. When a band member was finished playing an instrument, and ready to switch to another instrument, they would toss the old instrument behind them, and a stagehand or other band member would catch it. Some unusual instruments that were played included ukulele, cigar-box guitar, and vibraslap. Also, at one point a band member played a guitar with drumsticks, and at another point in the concert, two band members played one drumset. During this song, a bunch of absolutely enormous balloons, bigger balloons than I had ever seen before, were released into the audience from the ceiling, and everyone had an amusing time batting them around. :)
Throughout the whole concert, it was very evident that both the band members and all of the audience members were having a huge amount of fun!! It was absolutely the craziest concert I have ever been to!! I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Classical music in the summer
There are only a few things I don't like about Montreal. One of them is the dearth of classical music in the summer.
In winter, spring, and fall, there are many classical music concerts on the island of Montreal. In the summer, many Montreal ensembles and musicians play at summer festivals. These festivals take place in various places that are anything up to a two hours' drive from Montreal.
For classical music fans like me, who don't have cars, these festivals are impossible to get to (unless you know someone who is going to one of these festivals who does have a car.) Or maybe these festivals are for well-off people who are lucky enough to have cottages in Lanaudiere or the Eastern Townships.
I have been to concerts in the summer in Montreal which feature types of music other than classical. But you'd think that for such a world-class city, they'd be able to have at least some classical music in the summer.
In winter, spring, and fall, there are many classical music concerts on the island of Montreal. In the summer, many Montreal ensembles and musicians play at summer festivals. These festivals take place in various places that are anything up to a two hours' drive from Montreal.
For classical music fans like me, who don't have cars, these festivals are impossible to get to (unless you know someone who is going to one of these festivals who does have a car.) Or maybe these festivals are for well-off people who are lucky enough to have cottages in Lanaudiere or the Eastern Townships.
I have been to concerts in the summer in Montreal which feature types of music other than classical. But you'd think that for such a world-class city, they'd be able to have at least some classical music in the summer.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
That crazy modern music...
A line from Wah Keung Chan's Montreal Gazette music review of a Renee Fleming concert: "...the Mehldau songs were plagued by the sameness of most 20th-and 21st-century compositions -lacking rhyme, rhythm, melody, and ultimately reason." Seriously? Most 20th and 21st century classical music lacks rhythm, melody, and reason?
I guess many 20th/21st century composers wanted to turn away from melody. But many "modern" pieces do have melodies, maybe just not ones that every music reviewer enjoys or recognizes. And certainly, most 20th/21st century music has rhythm! And I'll bet that if music lacked reason, it wouldn't be composed.
And I don't think most recent music sounds the same, not at all.
Of course, this is the same reviewer who thought "crescendo" meant "climax."
I guess many 20th/21st century composers wanted to turn away from melody. But many "modern" pieces do have melodies, maybe just not ones that every music reviewer enjoys or recognizes. And certainly, most 20th/21st century music has rhythm! And I'll bet that if music lacked reason, it wouldn't be composed.
And I don't think most recent music sounds the same, not at all.
Of course, this is the same reviewer who thought "crescendo" meant "climax."
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