Friday, March 03, 2006

Look Ma, I'm in Korea


Oh how fun is this? Since the point of this web site is to shamelessly promote my music then it may not surprise you that I've done a little research. I "googled" myself! It had been kind of fun to see the different web sites that have my name because they are selling some of my handbell or choral music. But I was really surprised to find two sites in Korean! One has my handbell arrangement of Imortal Invisible listed. You can even click on a link and see the first page of it. But even more surpirsing was this link. http://miwansung.com/song/youngkwang/7/youngkwang-07.htm
It's a Korean page again listing my choral piece I Will Giv eThanks to the Lord. The realllly cool part is that you can click on the row of boxes (unless you've installed the Korean language on your computer - if it asks you to you can click cancel) next to the "sound" icon next to my name and you'll hear a Korean choir singing it in Korean.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Brethren

Most of my handbell music has been published by Jeffers Handbell Supply. One of my favorite pieces is an arrangement of "Brethren, We Have Met to Worship". It is for 3-5 octaves. It has a lot of fun things about it: lots of synchopation, martelatos, swings, shakes... It has been a great seller. In fact, the year it was published it came out in August and it sold more copies than any other piece Jeffers published that year. As a result, I was named Jeffers' Composer of the Year for 1996. How fun is that? You can get your own copy from Jeffers. 1-800-JHS-BELL.

Music For Handbells

Handbells are one of my very favorite things. I've been writing for bells since 1982. My very first published piece was written while I was at a church that didn't even have bells. I missed them so much that I began writing for them.
That first piece was an arrangement of B. B. McKinney's great hymn "Glorious Is Thy Name". It was published in Handbells a publication of LifeWay Christian Resources. A friend of mine, R. G. Huff, framed that first song for me as a Christmas present. It is still hanging up in my home. That one published page of music was such a thrill for me that I started writing more and more.