If you’ve followed many of the performances I’ve posted on this blog over the last few years, you’ll find that many of the recordings have come from a series of books published by The Lorenz Corporation. “Hymns You Love” is the latest and last book in this series which includes titles such as “Hymns We Love” and “Classical Hymns We Love.” All of these books took some of the most well-known sacred composers and asked them to arrange two songs each of their favorite hymns in a given sub-genre. This last book turned that model on its head. Lorenz asked their customers to submit their favorites for the six composers to arrange. The result is twelve songs of varying styles and difficulties that blend to create a unique type of piano collection. Read on to see what’s in the book and my thoughts on the arrangements.
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Posts Tagged ‘lloyd larson’
Review: “Hymns You Love” from Lorenz
Posted: January 28, 2013 in Piano Collections, ReviewsTags: collections, larry shackley, lloyd larson, lorenz, mark hayes, music, new, pepper choplin, piano, reviews
Ministering across state lines (not a felony)
Posted: August 6, 2011 in General, PerformanceTags: lloyd larson, motivation, performance, piano
I was recently contacted through this site by a young lady in the mid-west. She and her husband attend a very small church that has no musical accompaniment. She heard my performance of “Day by Day” by Lloyd Larson and wondered if she could sing along with it. It turned out to be a very singable arrangement although it was written for piano only.
She asked me to re-record a version for her to use as accompaniment in her church. She then secured the necessary rights that allowed me to record it again for her when I recorded three songs for missionaries to India,. It was neat to get to use my piano skills for another local church that is several states away. I haven’t met the young woman and probably never will, but being able to play for another group of believers without leaving home is pretty awesome. Isn’t technology great?!
Choral performance: “Taste and See that the Lord is Good” by Lloyd Larson
Posted: July 4, 2011 in PerformanceTags: choral, lloyd larson, music, ORBC, performance
Our choir sang this tune last Sunday with text taken from Psalm 34. It’s a quick, staccato piece with some smoother legato sections interspersed throughout. Enjoy the recording below! (more…)
Duet performance: “Jesus Paid it All” by Lloyd Larson
Posted: June 23, 2011 in PerformanceTags: duet, lloyd larson, music, performance, piano, trumpet
Image courtesy of Lorenz Publishing
Our church is fortunate to have a very talented trumpet player named Gordon Acree. He and I have collaborated in the past several times with offertories and special music. Most of the time, I’ve found pieces that I think would work well with a trumpet accompaniment. I play the piano part for him and usually send a recording to him so he can listen to it several times. He plays around with it for a while and usually comes up with some pretty creative treatments that really add to the songs I play. We tend to use songs that are intended for piano only, but sometimes I will “tone down” an arrangement to let the two instruments blend better. (more…)
Solo Performance: “Day by Day” by Lloyd Larson
Posted: March 3, 2011 in PerformanceTags: lloyd larson, performance, piano
Image courtesy of Lorenz
“Day by Day”
Arr: Lloyd Larson
All rights reserved. Used by permission
This arrangement of “Day by Day” by Lloyd Larson has a great mix of extremely quiet, tender melodies and powerful verses. The song travels along a wide dynamic range. For sounding so full, it isn’t a very difficult song to play. The only tricky spot is an eight note arpeggio (octuplet?) just before the last key change. I reduced it down to a six note arpeggio in order to simplify it. This recording’s a little softer than normal, so turn it up a little bit.
If you like the arrangement, you can purchase the book that it’s found in here. (more…)
