Song List: A Babe Was Born A Blood Red Rose Reminds Us Still A Garden You Once Made A God of Surprises, Beyond Expectation A Man Lay Beaten, Left for Dead A Rabbi Sat Against a Wall A Woman Stood Accused Ain't No Grave All People Need a Home As at Pentecost You Came As Children, We May learn to Love As Colors in the Sky Beside the Great Cathedrals Can You See Christ Can You See the Living Christ Chill of the Nightfall Each Seeking Faith Is Seeking Light Elijah Bowed Down on the Earth Fair Wind and the Sky Is Clear God, Help the Weary Travelers God, Help Your Church to Learn God, You Are Like a Place Remembered Guide My Canoe, Spirit Wind He Is The Way He Will Never Let Go My Hand Hope of the Earth I Saw an Angel in the Road I Will Not Always Walk This Earth In Every Changing State of Mind In the Stillness of This Hour Jesus, Live in Us Jesus Lives! Jesus, Partner, Lover, Friend Jesus, We Come to the Table Justice Like a River Lead Us to Still Waters Let Flow Our Tears in Grief for This Lilies Of The Field Look: Such Horror, Torn, then Tortured Mother, Child, and Birthing Spirit Much Brighter than a Thousand Suns My Child Is a Flower New Every Morning Is Your Grace No Obvious Angels Our God Is a Rock Our Life in the Spirit Out of Joy and Out of Need Peace Child Planter of Gardens, Sender of Rain Prayer Is the Cry of the Heart Remember the Rock that Bore You Samuel, Samuel, I Am Calling Startle Us with Joy The Earth Is Like a Burning Bush The Grass Will Green Again The Road to Capernaum The Saints of Old Cry Out There Is No Smell Like Fresh-Baked Bread This Hurt Is Not the Final Word True Union Is a Gift of God We Are People, Made by God We Are Your Children We Are Your People We Give You Thanks for Every Faith When Human Life Is Bought and Sold When I See the Rain With the People We Have You Give Rest to All Who Come to You You Set Your Seal upon Each Heart You Walk This Earth

Three Preludes on Occitan Songs

The single download comprises of an Introduction with performers' notes, a score with TAB underneath (to aid with the DADGBD tuning) and a score with notes only.

In performance, the guitar is tuned DADGBD (with both strings 1 and 6 tuned to D).

Icomposed Three Preludes on Occitan Songsduring the years I spent living and working in South West France.
I hadthe pleasure of seeing Occitan bands performing at village festivals. The styleof music was coarse and rhythmic with lyrics telling timeless stories. I borrowed the mostsimple of melodic fragments and use them to create contemporary guitar workssuitable for concert performance.

The Cancion de Hialara translates as ?The Spinner?sSong?. In this, I have imitated the rustic drones of the hurdy-gurdies found inOccitan bands through the use of tremolo patterns.

Som Som is a lullaby. This melody isfamiliar to many cultures across Europe and beyond.

L� NostreAse translatesas ?Our Donkey?. It is a comic song which tells of the antics of a stubbornrustic animal. Players should enjoy the hemiola rhythms where 3/4 is set again6/8.

For other solo compositions, arrangements, and teaching scores, see: www.danjonesguitarist.com.

This cancause some difficulty in reading. Also, to take advantage of the sonority ofthe instrument when tuned this way, the unusual playing positions and fingeringare critical. It is for these reasons that I have provided the score in justnotes but also with notes and tablature below.

Thankyou and I hope you enjoy Three Preludes on Occitan Songs.

The Water Is Wide (O Waly Waly)
Duration: 5:24
Score: 10 pg. 121 ms., MM quarter = 94, final verse MM quarter = 80, common time
Solo part: 3 pg.
Piano part: 4 pg.

A thought-provoking arrangement of a Traditional Scottish Folksong. Probably most widely known as "The Water Is Wide,"
it is also well known by it's more ancient title: "O Waly Waly." The tune is also known as " When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," and "The Gift of Love."
This is an original arrangement from the ground up.

Programming:
If you are looking for something with new contrapuntal and harmonic adventures for a Lenten prelude or a meditation during Holy Week, this will fit the bill.
It could also work well in a recital setting because it fits well on the instrument, and provides a chance to show off long, sensitive musical phrases.
Some of the figures in the descant verse are a wee-bit more advanced so, this is for intermediate players rather than beginners.

Keep in mind these performance ideas:
1. It's a simple tune that needs to unfold in the due course of time, so don't rush it. A slight ritardando at the end of each verse may help if you want to further delineate the verses.
2. There is a lot of interesting counterpoint here, so be prepared to give-and-take on the dynamics more than what I have indicated.
3. The final verse is much slower and more mysterious, and the dynamics are crucial - the quieter the better. Piano - the last chord: take your time on the roll, make it nice and slow.

Synopsis of the arrangement:
verse 1: Simple quiet duet with the melody in the solo instrument.
verse 2: Melody in the solo instrument accompanied by a 2-part canon in the piano.
verse 3: Melody in the piano in 4-part harmony.
verse 4: 3-part canon on the melody (with a free accompaniment voice).
verse 5: 2-part canon with a free accompaniment in the solo part
verse 6: Melody in octaves with free bass in octaves; descant in the solo part - loudest verse.
verse 7: Very quiet ending verse - Modulates down a fourth, melody in the solo part accompanied by simple quartal/quintal
piano clusters over bass chords that suggest submerged church bells.

For better insight into the performance of this music: express the emotion indicated by the lyrics:

The Water Is Wide:
The water is wide, I cannot get over
Neither have I wings to fly
Give me a boat that can carry two
And both shall row, my love and I
A ship there is and she sails the sea
She's loaded deep as deep can be
But not so deep as the love I'm in
I know not if I sink or swim
I leaned my back against an oak
Thinking it was a trusty tree
But first it bent and then it broke
So did my love prove false to me
I reached my finger into some soft bush
Thinking the fairest flower to find
I pricked my finger to the bone
And left the fairest flower behind
Oh love be handsome and love be kind
Gay as a jewel when first it is new
But love grows old and waxes cold
And fades away like the morning dew
Must I go bound while you go free
Must I love a man who doesn't love me
Must I be born with so little art
As to love a man who'll break my heart
When cockle shells turn silver bells
Then will my love come back to me
When roses bloom in winter's gloom
Then will my love return to me

The lyrics for "Waly, Waly, Gin Love Be Bonny" from Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany (1724).

O Waly, waly (a lament ? "woe is me") up the bank,
And waly, waly doun the brae (hill),
And waly, waly, yon burn-side (riverside),
Where I and my love wont to gae.
I lean'd my back into an aik (oak),
I thocht it was a trusty tree;
But first it bow'd, and syne (soon) it brak (broke),
Sae my true love did lightly me.

O waly, waly, but love be bonnie (beautiful),
A little time while it is new,
But when 'tis auld (old), it waxeth cauld (cold),
And fades away like the morning dew.
O wherefore should I busk my heid (adorn my head)?
Or wherefore should I kame (comb) my hair?
For my true love has me forsook,
And says he'll never love me mair (more).

Now Arthur Seat shall be my bed,
The sheets shall ne'er be fyl'd by me,
Saint Anton's well shall be my drink,
Since my true love has forsaken me.
Martinmas wind, when wilt thou blaw (blow),
And shake the green leaves off the tree?
O gentle death, when wilt thou come?
For of my life I am weary.

'Tis not the frost, that freezes fell,
Nor blawing snaws (snow) inclemency,
'Tis not sic cauld (such cold) that makes me cry,
But my love's heart grown cauld to me.
When we cam in by Glasgow town,
We were a comely sight to see;
My love was clad in the black velvet,
And I my sell in cramasie (crimson).

But had I wist (known), before I kiss'd,
That love had been sae ill to win,
I'd lock my heart in a case of gold,
And pin'd it with a silver pin.
Oh, oh! if my young babe were born,
And set upon the nurse's knee,
And I my sell were dead and gane,
For a maid again I'll never be.[4]
(Lyrics courtesy of Wikipedia)


For more information, please feel free to contact me at: jmsgu3 "at" gmail.com
James M. Guthrie, ASCAP
jmsgu3 publications

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) for Advanced Piano Solo

This Christmas classic has music and lyrics by Mel Torme and Robert Wells. I have always loved this piece--it brings the spirit of all the good things that the season can bring! There is a reason why there are so many arrangements of this piece--it has a beautiful melody and invites oodles of creativeness when it comes to the harmony and arranging.

This arrangement is a challenging jazz piece that is played freely, with rubato. Challenges include jazzy runs, two against three rhythms, accelerandos and ritardandos, and should be played with great feeling and expression.
Feel free to pause where you want to spend a little more time, or where you want your audience to enjoy some different harmonies. Take your time learning the fast runs--there are patterns to discover! Work out a fingering that works for you.

YouTube video is available at: https://youtu.be/XE3Tbdzh2eU

You can see this piece (and others) on my YouTube Channel, "the-piano-studio.com", or visit me at www.the-piano-studio.com

Enjoy!