Nearer My God to Thee piano solo |
Nearer My God to Thee
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(Spring 2009) Wow, a lot of different angles for this story! First off, I have never been happy with the "doable-ness" of a choral arrangement (since removed from AW.com) I wrote oh so long ago. I was just experimenting at the time, and I'm sure it's very hard to perform (I've tried many time without success to record it). To be honest, I actually felt guilty every time someone bought the SATB because they hadn't heard it and didn't know what they were in for! So this piano solo is meant to make me feel better about this great hymn that everyone loves. So...I decided to go completely opposite of the big, brash, bravado accompaniment of the first version to a very Very VERY simple piano solo. Perhaps the simplest piano solo I've ever written, in fact! But that's a good thing, because I tend to write whatever comes out, not thinking about a paying customer being a beginning piano student and such. So this arrangement is really for that kind of piano player, maybe a 12-year-old Beehive that has been asked to play a special number in YW or New Beginnings and has no idea what to do and yikes all of this AaronWaite.com stuff is way too hard for me! Problem solved! :) But what this piece is really about is my grandmother's brother Jay Welch who passed away just two weeks before I wrote this arrangement. He was an associate conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for almost twenty years, and head conductor for two. A musical genius as quoted by many many musicians around the country, he studied in New York and France and was the head of the University of Utah music department for many years. The world lost a key contributor when he died. And I lost the pinnacle of the musical talent that ever-so-slightly runs in my blood. This website would not be possible without the musical heritage from "Uncle Jay," and I know I will never EVER be anywhere close to his talent, but I can bask in his glory for so long and sing or play my praises the same way. Above all, he was humble, and so this, an arrangement of Jay Welch's favorite hymn, is humble.