I wrote this song in the early 2000s and originally scored it for strings with an obligato clarinet part. Soon thereafter I had a chance to sing it and sent the music off to Ms. Jane Bate who arranged it for piano. Now that I've gained much needed knowledge and practice with orchestration, I decided to revisit this piece, score it for a small orchestra, and add a 1930s filter to give it the feel I was going for. Hopefully, you're able to see Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers gracefully dancing to the music.

Good Ol' Summertime Retro Mix

Flight of the Monarch follows the migration path of the North American Monarch butterfly from Canada, through the United States, and into Mexico. The piece is based off of folk music from each of the three different countries these little beauties pass through resulting in music that is as fantastic as their epic journey is.

Flight of the Monarch - MIDI Realization

Composed in 2016 as a part of my Bachelor degree requirements. At the time, I was working full-time for the railroad, going to school to finish up my degree, along with being a full-time parent/father. I decided to focus this energy into a song which culminated into what you hear now. I can hear this song as being part of a larger musical and may work on that down the road. Many props and a huge shout out to my teacher, Dr. Mark Dal Porto, for his amazing piano skills!

A Cry For Peace - Live!

When my kids were younger, they enjoyed watching 'Peep and the Big Wide World'. The music in that show was short, catchy, and jazzy little motives. Wanting to try my hand at writing for jazz, I used one of those small motives as the basis of this piece, my first attempt at jazz writing. I do have plans to revisit this piece in the future and make it part of a Jazz Suite.

Peep - MIDI Realization

From the vault of my early compositions, here are 6 short pieces for solo piano. Written over the course of a number of years (1996 - early 2000s) and expressing many different moods and styles. A mix of studio recordings, MIDI Realizations, and a live recording.

6 Short Pieces For Piano

A song I wrote in 2007 for the 'Music and Lyrics' song competition.

My Sunshine

One of my favorite bands growing up was DigHayZoose. On their sophomore album was a great tune called 'Diggin' Away' which, after hearing, I knew would make a great piece for a Steel Drum Band. After receiving permission from one of the band members, I worked up the arrangement, found a group to perform it, and was thrilled with the results. Many thanks to the Texas Tech Steel Drum band under the direction of Lisa Rogers!

Diggin' Away - Live! (Arrangement)

‘Light echo’ was a term I came across on NASA’s website. This effect occurs when ‘dusty cloud structures’ are illuminated by the brightening of a star. In this case, it was a red supergiant known as V838 Monocerotis. As NASA describes the event, “The echoing of light through space is similar to the echoing of sound through air. As light from the explosion continues to move outwards, different parts of the dust are illuminated, just as a sound echo bounces off of objects near the source, and later, objects further from the source.” I found this about the same time as I ran across the Dallas Winds call for fanfares. Their submission rules mentioned that the performance space was reverberant and I thought this, along with NASA’s light echo, would make for a great piece of music.

Purposefully written for a highly reverberant space, all sounds resulting from these echoes should be welcomed. The result of this endeavor is a wonderfully colored piece that will make a great prelude to any concert. 

Echoes of Light - MIDI Realization

An arrangement of the beloved hymn for solo piano

Be Still, My Soul - Live!

Demo recording of my piece for women's choir (SSA)

Twilight Has Come

"Music is life itself." - Louis Armstrong

Caleb Brandon

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