(4/23/2012) Yesterday I performed my new arrangement of the hymn "Lead Kindly Light" for Native American flutes and piano in church, accompanied by Janet Olson. It was a very special performance; one of those rare "perfect" performances in which I can't think of how it could have gone any better. I did not record the performance, but I recorded our rehearsals. Here is a live recording in the chapel, with ony a couple minor mistakes. It's not the best recording; I was using my MacBook Pro's built-in mic. I've done a noise reduction filter to remove some background hiss. The reverb is natural.
Lead Kindly Light (MP3 of live recording) (PDF SheetMusic)
Arranged for Native American Flutes and Piano by Paul Erdman
Performed by Paul Erdman & Janet Olson
A couple exciting new developments have happened on the music front. I got together with two friends: a cellist and a didjeridoo player. I play my native American flutes and provide a number of percussion instruments. We've had two rehearsals together so far and have already come up with some interesting music together. I am also the groups primary composer/arranger, and have already done an arrangement of We Three Kings, an arrangement of one of my own original melodies, and two loose charts for improvisational use.
Given my lack of notation software and the expense of the crossgrade to Sibelius from Finale, I felt inspired to search the internet for "opensource music notation," and I found MuseSource, an entirely free music notation application. I've been using it now for a couple weeks. I'm sure it's not nearly as good as Sibelius; It's not as good as Finale 2002 was on my old Windows computer. But, it's free, and it works! So I'm back in business, as far as composing/arranging goes. Right now I'll limit myself to arranging for my new group.
(4/23/2012) A few more snippets from a recent rehearsal.
Improv 1
Improv 2
Improv 3
Improv 4
Improv 5
(3/21/2012) I recorded a few snippets from our practice session tonight. Three are from unrehearsed jams that happen to sound decent. We're jokingly referring to the band as "Boomashank"—a bit of a lame inside joke that isn't even worth explaining, but we laugh ever time we say it. So if you want to hear what we're sounding like, here are some rough demos:
Unrehearsed Improv: Didj, Djembe, E Flute (the highlight of the evening)
Unrehearsed Warm-Up Inprov: Didj, Djembe, Cello
Unrehearsed Improv: Didj, A Flute/Djembe, Cello
Juxtaposition
The Smalley Blues! (Oh yeah! Completely spontaneous insanity.)
For several years I researched, tracked, wrote, and recorded voice-over for an hour-long Internet-radio show exploring the many relationships between two of my favorite genres of music: classical and progressive rock. I did 32 empisodes. At some point I might do more; the station wants me to, but the the show is very time consuming and I need to make a living!
In the meantime, I've shifted to running the Classical Connection Blog, where I can post videos and news concerning classical crossover music and classically-oriented prog-rock bands. The original show website is still live too, where you can listen to almost every one of the hour-long episodes in their entirety.
This page contains music composed/arranged by Paul Erdman and played back from Finale notation software through a Roland Sound Canvas. All these recordings were made prior to 2005. I've done a few arrangements since then (mostly hymns for live church performance), but I've not recorded them. I hope to compose, arrange, and record more in the future as time permits. I also plan to make sheet music available for some of these available in the future. But for now you can listen to your heart's content (or discontent, as the case may unfortunately be).
Slideshows on YouTube
I've made slideshows for three pieces and posted them on YouTube.
Compositions:
Sheet Music
Love at Home for low voice and piano. I was asked to sing this hymn as a solo in church in 2009, and as I was rehearsing it this arrangement came into my mind. I haven't yet had a chance to invest in notation software for my Mac, so I had to dig out my old Windows computer with Finale on it to do the music. The notation isn't very polished, and yes, I know there are a few problems, especially with impossible-to-play notes in the last verse; I really wanted that counter melody in there and I will rescore the accompaniment once I have new sofware for my Mac, but for now it will have to do. It still sounds quite nice (well, I hope you agree).
The introduciton and third verse accompaniment is based on a motive found in the melody. The first verse has very sparse accompaniment; the vocalist is literally singing alone for most of it (not for the timid!) while the piano comes and goes. Then the piano arpeggios into a "fluttering" accompaniment for the second verse. I tried to use tone painting in the accompaniment throughout to represent things like the brooklet singing by, the azure sky, the garden sweet, and especially the One who smiles on high.
If you like the arrangement and use it, let me know. Please forgive its imperfections.
My Musical Background
I grew up in a musical family and took basic chldhood piano lessons, played clarinet in highschool band, and loved to sing. When I was 12 we got a Commodore 64 computer with a music program on it. I wrote a lot of music on that computer (including the entire Fantasia on Themes from Childhood, in a slightly simpler, 3-voiced arrangement). However, I didn't realize how much I loved music until I was on my mission. As a student at Ricks College I joined the Concert Chorale, managed to get into music major theory classes, and take private composition study with Darwin Wolford, even though I had minimal keyboard skills and no major instrument. I went on to minor in music from BYU (although BYU's music major classes were too full to let me in as a non-major, so that put a premature end to my formal theory and composition studies). Since then I've actively listened and studied on my own, and actively arranged and composed until family and work got so busy that I've put it mostly on hold for the last few years. I'm looking forward to someday getting back to it. Over the years I've also sung in a number of different audition choirs. I also enjoy playing casually with a number of different instruments, including primitive wooden flutes, my djembe drum, my old clarinet, piano, guitar, and anything else I can get my hands on.