Gift of holiday music for all – present 3

As my holiday gift to you, loyal readers, instead of security related commentary, this series of posts contains holiday music for you to enjoy. For free. For you and whoever you would like to share it with.

The earlier posts in this series present 1: Impressions of Christmas 2001 and present 2: Christmas Child 2002 were original arrangements of traditional Christmas carols or new compositions performed, recorded and produced by Larry Hall and me. This present is a bit different. It this years collection of holiday music performed by musicians utilizing the Garritan sample libraries.

Composers and arrangers use Garritan Libraries to realize their compositions and to simulate what a real orchestra and a real conductor would sound like. While the state-of-the-art of digital music continues to advance, our goal is to provide tools for musicians and create opportunities, rather than replace musicians. What products like the Garritan Personal Orchestra have done is to bring the possibility of realizing orchestral compositions to everybody from the most renowned composers to Hollywood film scorers to TV jingle men down to amateurs and music students in their dormitory rooms.

The work done in the recordings on this album are a testament not only to the sophistication of music technology, but also to the skill of the composers, arrangers and programmers who have used these tools so remarkably well. Finally, let’s not forget the powerful force of the sentiments of the season and the inspiration behind the music. Each year we come back to these melodies and forms because they inspire us like no other.

Many thanks to everyone who submitted a song for the Christmas CD. A big thanks as well to Dan Kury who organized this effort and mastered the songs for the album.  And many thanks to James Mireau for the cover art.

The Garritan Community Christmas 2009 CD was a collaborative effort of the Garritan Community and was put together in the spirit of giving for the holiday.

This is the sixth year that the Garritan Community has released an annual collection of free Christmas music. While this is not an endorsement of the Garritan products [they don’t compensate me in any way for this], it’s hard not to be completely blown away by the quality of Garritan sound libraries and the talent of the musicians who use them in this project.

A Garritan Community Christmas Volume 6

A Garritan Community Christmas Volume 6

Welcome to the 6th Annual Garritan Community Christmas Album, a unique musical project. A community of musicians from all over the world met on the Garritan community forum and agreed to submit their own recordings of holiday music, to be freely distributed. Each of these orchestral recordings were made not with large live orchestras in vast recording studios at huge expense, but rather were created by a single person working on their own desktop or laptop computer. What they have in common is the use of Garritan libraries representing software musical instruments based on samples of real instruments.

Happy Holidays from Security For All!

Gift of holiday music for all – present 2

As my holiday gift to you, loyal readers, instead of security related commentary, this series of posts contains holiday music for you to enjoy. For free. For you and whoever you would like to share it with.

I should explain where this music comes from. In 2000, Larry Hall and I decided to start recording original arrangements of Christmas Carols. As musicians [Larry is a guitarist, I’m a keyboardist] we were both drawn to Christmas music because traditional Christmas carols are so ingrained in our collective psyche that arrangements can have enormous latitude, exploring different styles and voicing without confusing the listener. By December 2001 we had some material recorded with the help of fellow musicians, drummer Troy Harms and bassist Dean Vendl, so we decided to send the CDs as “Christmas Cards” to those on our collective lists. Thus it began with the music in present 1: Impressions of Christmas 2001.

The “Christmas CD card” idea was such a hit with friends and family that we decided to follow it up with more of the same for the holiday season in 2002. Besides, we already had Larry’s studio configured and a whole bunch of new toys to play with. This musical gift is from that second EP which includes an original composition for which the collection is named. Enjoy.

Christmas Child 2002

1. A Day, Bright Day of Glory – Traditional

2. Patapan (Guillo, Pran Ton Tamborin) – Traditional Burgundian-French

3. We Three Kings of Orient Are – Written by Rev. John H. Hopkins, Jr.

4. Christmas Child – Written by Joe Webster

Larry Hall – acoustic and electric guitars
Joe Webster – keyboards and vocals

Arranged by Larry Hall and Joe Webster
Produced by Larry Hall
Production assistance by Joe Webster
Recorded by Larry Hall at Thirsty Ear Studio
Photograph of Alexis Hall by Robin Morris
Art Direction and Design by Rita Kiefer

This music is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. That means you can use it for whatever you want – play it on your iPod, burn a CD, give it to your friends, use it in your podcast, play it on the radio, use it as the theme music to your hit TV series – whatever you want. Just give credit to the musicians who made it.

In case you were wondering, that cute baby in the cover image is now a bright, beautiful, talented young keyboardist who collaborates with her father far more often than I do these days.

Happy Holidays from Security For All!

Gift of holiday music for all – present 1

It’s the holiday season! I love this season, and in particular I love Christmas music. As a musician I’m partial to Christmas music for several reasons: traditional Christmas carols are so ingrained in our collective psyche that as an arranger one can explore many different styles and arrangements without confusing the listener and the Christmas season is just, well, inspirational.

So as my holiday gift to you, loyal readers, instead of security related commentary, this post and the several following will contain holiday music for you to enjoy. For free. For you and whoever you would like to share it with.

Actually there is a little security related stuff here [hey – you didn’t think you’d get off that easy]. This music is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. That means you can use it for whatever you want – play it on your iPod, burn a CD, play it on the radio, use it as the theme music to your hit TV series – whatever you want. Just give credit to the musicians who made it, which in this case are Larry Hall, Troy Harms, Dean Vendl and me.

Impressions of Christmas 2001

1. Angels We Have Heard on High – A Caribbean Salvation Army Zydeco band, whose normal drummer is replaced by a rocker meets some strolling mariachis.

Larry Hall – Guitars and programming
Troy Harms – Drums
Joe Webster – Keyboards

2. Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella_Carol of the Bells – Chris Webster first suggested doing “Carol of the Bells” as a round. It evolved into this quasi-minimalist tone poem somehow.

Larry Hall – Guitars and Mandolins
Joe Webster – Keyboards

3. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day – Counterpoint. The Longfellow poem counterpoints war with the peace and hope message of Christmas. What began with the idea to counterpoint the two traditional melodies ended up counterpointing many melodies and diverse musical styles.

Larry Hall – Guitars and Mandolins
Joe Webster – Keyboards

4. O Come, O Come Immanuel – In the weeks following September 11, every TV news show had dramatic, mournful theme music featuring a distant trumpet and and a tolling bell. The inspiration for this arrangement came from that theme music.

Larry Hall – Guitars
Dean Vendl – 7-string electric bass
Joe Webster – Keyboards

Cover image by Digital Blasphemy.

Happy Holidays from Security For All!