The Singing Business Card

Almost all composers have a “day job,” but the lucky ones have musical ones. The lyrics of this original song celebrate the musical skills Loren the Composer uses in music directing positions.

18 Wheels

Country music is good American music. In 1995 I went long haul truck driving to explore the country. For a composer, the music they compose inevitably reflects their road in life.

Have You Met Miss Jones?

Jazz musicians take songs from “The Great American Songbook” and often arrange them for various instrumentation. This recording is an example of what happens when a jazz harmony hacker arranges one of these great songs for guitarists.

Out There on that Floor

Skillful lyrics offer another level of originality. This song reflects the composers view on how the community contributes to the creation of musicians, dancers, and other artists.

American Honesty

Brass Quintet – The harmonies of this brass piece are distinctly American in style. From reminiscences of the Civil War to the local high school football game, brass will always have a place for Americans

American Dreams

Composing is personal, and for an American, certain chords and lyrical themes are common. This song incorporates the situation of the farming basis of the nation and the simultaneous changes that have occurred between the generations regarding the work ethic and the cultural glue of family bonds.

Game Show Theme — “ErGle SnoRf”

Some songs are serious. Some songs are fun. This song is seriously fun!

If it Ain’t Baroque, Don’t Fix It

Sometimes an old musical genre can be parodied to create a fresh iteration that also has a strangely familiar quality to the modern listener.

T-Ball Winner

Songs for kids provide the best reason to have fun in music!

Wonder Maker

A composer friend, JAC Redford, wrote a book called “Welcome All Wonders.” I was so taken by its title that i renamed this composition to what it is now. This renaming reminds me of the rebirth that can occur in a human being, and I believe it to occur on an ongoing basis. This composition seems to speak that it’s a sad process, but you can hear hope and the new equilibrium that is my hope in our ultimate futures.

Wayfaring Stranger

Many composers have cultivated an interest in folk songs from their own country of origin or abroad. Brahms orchestrated “The Hungarian Dances.” Dvorak quoted the American folk song “Three Blind Mice” in his “Symphony from the New World,” and prophetically stated that American music would only hit the world scene when it examined its own folk music. That occurred when Aaron Copeland did so. Here’s a nice guitar moment from the American Composer in Loren the Composer.

The Chicken Song

Some of the best music is for cartoons.

The Encouragement Song

Sometimes composers use their skill to make cultural commentaries.

Drive and Drive

Here’s a song representative of my years long haul truck driving, looking forward to a life driving forth into the future, metaphorically speaking.

Scooberdoofin

Songs can be man’s best friend. They can become your pet.

No Pain No Gain

This song describes the first days of a new school year and was performed by Mr. Richmond’s sixth grade class at Liberty Towers in Sacramento, California in 2001

The Flyswatter of Death

This song was performed by Mr. Richmond’s sixth grade class at Liberty Towers in Sacramento, California in 2001

Tell Everybody Goodbye

This song was also recorded by Mr. Richmond’s sixth grade class at Liberty Towers in Sacramento, California in 2001

Same One Who Made You and Me

This song was performed at a concert at Evangelical Free Church of Huntington Beach, California in 1997

God’s the Giver

This song was also performed at the concert at Evangelical Free Church in Huntington Beach, California in 1997

Leave it Up to the Lord

This song was performed at a concert at Evangelical Free Church of Huntington Beach, California in 1997

Hawk in Flight

Some songs are best heard in a quiet setting. You might have to seek out quiet music listening times, but it’s well worth the effort..

The Sound Check Song

Community performances, and later printed sheet music, used to constitute the only windows to the world for a composer’s art, but since the invention of recording, and later multi-track recording, sound engineers have assumed much of the responsibility for conveying the music to the listeners. Bringing the emotions of the music to the listeners is a particularly NON-emotional endeavor even as emotions are usually at the heart of the reason for the music in the first place.

Can you name a famous recording engineer? Probably not, There really aren’t any, yet every hit song, orchestral work, and movie soundtrack had to have been graced by the skills and highly musical attentions of these unsung heroes The job description of the recording engineer includes staying out of the way of the musical presentation. If all goes welll in the recording process, we as listeners should not have cause to even think of the engineer. Yet his role is crucial.

This recording features the button-pressing finesse of Sacramento’s favorite sound man of renown, Jerry Jennings. Jerry, you are a symbol of auditory freedom. Long may you sine-wave!

Tangelo

Some moods in music come from the music. Others come from the lyrics. Unique and complex moods can be created in the prosody of artistic juxtapostions and fresh quotations of ancient song snippets or known cliches.

Loren’s Sonatina

It’s not a fugue, but sometimes a little less brainy is nice.

Recording under construction–

Unless you’re part of the professional singing production team for this recording in progress, don’t mind this song yet. It has several parts that are yet to be recorded that make the overall lyrical presentation make sense. It doesn’t yet make sense enough.

Ray of Sunshine

I have five friends named “Ray.” This song is for anyone named “Ray.”

Metamorhic Rock

This song appears to show how much the composer likes rock. (And puns!)

40’s Music in the 2010’s

I sure enjoyed playing the Senior’s Dance every Sunday in Sacramento throughout the early 2010’s. Frank Oddo was born in 1920, and he led our combo with his saxophone. He was 90 years old when I was 45 years old. He was the real deal from the era of the 40’s. From him I learned the songs of the era, and I always enjoyed my role as pianist, especially when it came time to solo. That is improvisation, one of my favorite forms of composing.

Arson Finkle

There are blurred lines between music, poetry, and speaking. Let us not confuse the beauty of the sounds of words with their meanings. Let’s not confuse the beautiful aspects of a public personality with what they do with the power they are given. Let’s not hate them just for functioning on our behalf either. They might mean well. Let’s not be hard on them without cause. Audiences have,been hard on the wielders of limelight, which might account for the common problem we call “stage fright.” Anyone coming into confrontation with the limelight in front of an audience must become a tough cookie. Taking a specific political stand with lyrics is a bigger risk than just presenting instrumental music. Let’s value our creative people when they take a political stand. It’s not easy. Let’s value our John Lennon’s, Andy Kauffman’s,  Shostokovich’s… anyone with the courage to stand up and be original.

This poem, when they were asked to perform it before their peers in class helped my sixth grade students feel confident about speaking before others.

Composition using cadences

Cadences are a special kind of musical glue that holds music together. This composition is composed of one cadence after another.

Composition using arpeggios

Arpeggios are another special kind of musical glue that holds music together. This composition is composed entirely of arpeggios.

Hymn Arrangement

Composers have often arranged existing hymns for use in church. A famous example is “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” arranged by J.S. Bach. Here’s an arrangement of “Jesus Priceless Treasure.”

Church Group Singing Music – “He is No Fool”

After the 50’s, cultural expression in churches shifted away from organ and hymns, but retained its group singing. It required a change in composition to an instrumentation that represented a younger generation. Bands such as the Beatles had canonized a guitar-based music, but melodies sung by large groups must be slow enough to keep the group together rhythmically. This “worship” song borrows a lyric from a statement made by a famous Christian martyr named Jim Elliot. “He is no fool who gives today what he cannot keep anyway.”

Church Group Choir Music – “Welcome to Southside”

Compositions can be written for specific audiences. That makes them special in a certain way. This song was written for choir and requires rehearsal. Such composition can be more complex in nature than music for the entire audience to sing.

Church Group Choir Music – “Savior in the Heavens”

Here is a long one. According to the Book of Revelation in the Bible, the term “Hallejuiah” is the word that the angels use to sing worship to the Almighty God at the end of all creation. This was recorded by a choir at Valley Springs Presbyterian Church in Roseville, California in 2001.

Be My Valentine

Instrumental solos are a form of composition superimposed upon another composition. This song, written by Tim Durnan, offered me a chance to “compose” a honky-tonk piano solo..

The Easter Bunny is Hopping

Songs for kids can be filled with technical mastery. The kids don’t care. The adults usually don’t care either. Otherwise Bach’s “Art of Fugue” or “Well-Tempered Clavier” would be a little more popular. Everyone usually just likes whatever is presented. I have mixed feelings about that, but I listen to everything in its season.

Performing in front of folks

Once you compose a song, you might want to let an audience hear it. Here’s a recital song called “It’s your Turn”

Where From?

Certain sounds are associated with certain cultures or places in the world. This composition references places from all over, thrown in together.

Get Well

The healing powers of music have long been a subject of wonderment. Try this song out on a friend the next time you want to send “get well soon” wishes.

Buskers

One fun musical thing to do is to play in public for tips. It’s called “busking.” As a composer, some songs can be written to fit the occasion. The particular chord choices, instrumentation, and the degree of the “catchy” quality can be thought of during the composing to make the busking go well. This song was written for a fellow “busker” and myself. Max Huscher and I played it at a local library and, although we never put out a tip jar, a friendly patron volunteered a dollar to our cause. We split the profit fifty-fifty.

“Fifty-Fifty” sounds like a good name for an album, but this song lends itself to “live” presentation. Still, this recording gives a taste of the event. Feel free to learn it by ear and take it to the streets. It’s nice when songs develop a life of their own “out there.” Maybe someday one of us will be walking through a farmers’ market or an old town in some city and hear it again played by others. This would be a wonderful use of our musical endeavors.

Out of the Frying Pan

Life is fleeting. Everything we do comes to an end eventually, but this song is about keeping on keeping on.