I’m currently busy working on two little compositional projects.
The way I do things is that I’ll focus on one song at a time (or at most two). And I’ll obsess about the song day and night until I complete it and I’m fully satisfied with it, then I’ll move on to a new project.
Christmas Song
The first song is a Christmas song which I was thinking about throughout the three weeks I was in reservist. I even worked on it when I was out in the field, writing down ideas in my little black notebook.
This song is intended for our children’s choir in December, but I’ve yet to submit it for consideration and I am highly uncertain if it will be accepted.
It’s more or less done by now and I’ve got all the notes, chords and lyrics all worked out, but I’m having lots of doubt about it cos I’m being particularly ambitious about this song, so I’m now looking at it and critiquing it from a hundred different angles trying to determine if it will work. (I am still unsure).
And I’m also trying to determine if the quality of the song is up to par.
Psalm 23
This one is very much still in the works.
I actually started work on this as early as end of last year, and I kinda got some decent ideas down on paper, but I never really got down to completing the song so I left it in limbo. Then last week I kinda got fresh inspiration to continue working on it once again.
It’s based on the entire Psalm 23, with the lyrics being almost word-for-word as compared to the NIV bible.
No plans yet as to how this piece will be presented or who will present it, but right now I’m just focussed on getting the piece completed.
I’ve always wanted to write music to Psalm 23, cos it’s one of the most famous of the Psalms, and it is also very poetic, capable of evoking wonderful imagery. If you do a search, you’d find that there are many songs which have been written to Psalm 23, and so I thought I’d have my own go at it too.
There are some things which I like about it thus far, but there are still a number of areas which need to be sorted out. But at least I have a grand vision of what I would like the piece to sound like and I think I’m getting there.
I have been thinking about this song every day for the past few days, humming the existing lines over and over again, then most nights I’d go home and bang it out on the piano and see if I like what I hear.
I love the songwriting process.
That’s good! Hope to listen to them soon.
Anyway, I’ve also been trying to base a song on scripture. I’ve written down lyrics based on Genesis, about the creation of the world (well, at least the gist of it) but have yet to put a tune to it for some months now.
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