2014 Carol Mashup #4

I only had time to do two today.Aliana Kae asked for “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” in the style of Rachmaninov. I adapted the opening of the C# minor prelude and used the melody as a replacement bass line. I then played part of the melody in a Rachmaninov...

2014 Christmas Carol Mashups #3

The latest set of requests for Christmas Carol mashups brought some fun options. It seems that the favorite from this round is a request by one of our compositions students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Cambria Butcher requested “Baby it’s cold...

2014 Christmas Carol Mashups #2

I had some time today between students to fulfill a few more of the requests.Today’s first mashup comes from a wonderful suggestion by one of my composition students. Caitlin Gilmore suggested “Grandma got run over by a reindeer” in the style of Bela...

2014 Christmas Carol Mash Ups #1

Every year, I wind up doing a little parlor trick for students toward the end of the Fall semester. I have them pick a carol and a composer, and I try to play the carol in the style of the composer. A student once told me that it was more fun than watching...

St. John of the Cross: The Little White Dove

My setting of San Juan de la Cruz’s text “La blanca palomica” is finally out in print from the folks at Colla Voce thanks to the indefatigable Jo-Michael Scheibe. He really is one of the most important new music champions of our time.The piece was...