Listening again. What a gorgeous and glorious thing this is. A beautiful sound for the season, and anytime a sweet refreshment is needed.

Sweet and thoughtful !!! Fluid, expressive and soft in its expression. Persuasive and beautiful song. I love it so much!!!

This simply does not get old; a high-water mark for music of the season and so nice to hear again. Kudos Pete, wish I could repost a hundred times.

Impressing arrangement and sound. Great work!

This was an unexpected piece to round off another year after the acquisition of the wonderful VSL YMIR children's choir library. Well what can you do except compose a piece using it ;-)

Given the time of year a seasonal piece made sense and once I had a title then I was away. I also took the opportunity to practice orchestral wooshes (they are a thing). The ones in this piece comprise a cymbal roll, a timpani roll and a harp gliss.  

Many of the instruments employed here like glockenspiel and tubular bells are popular in this type of music and obviously sleigh bells make an appearance. I took the liberty of quoting 'Deck the Halls' in some places too.

I wanted a dream sequence in the middle of the piece which is mainly choir and alto flute, although the glockenspiel and percussion makes an appearance. It acts as a nice contrast to the general festive sleigh ride feel. 

Wishing you 'The Compliments of the Yuletide Season' :-)

Release Date: 2023-12-01
Label: Peter Goodrich
UPC: 735910951592
ISRC: GX4W52300001

Available for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube and other sites.

Photo by Tobias Bjørkli from Pexels

Also now on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRmXjTJOrD4

Instrumentation
Ensemble Strings Mixed  - Chris Hein Strings
Ensemble Strings Violin  - Chris Hein Strings
Ensemble Strings Viola (Sus Vib)  - Chris Hein Strings
Ensemble Strings Viola (Pizz Tight) - Chris Hein Strings 
Ensemble Strings Cello - Chris Hein Strings
Ensemble Strings Bass - Chris Hein Strings 
Alto Flute - Chris Hein Winds
English Horn - Chris Hein Winds 
French Horn - Chris Hein Winds 
French Horn Ensemble - Chris Hein Brass
Trombone Ensemble - Chris Hein Brass
Euphonium - Chris Hein Brass
Tuba - Chris Hein Brass 
Vibraphone - VSL - Big Bang Orchestra 
Glockenspiel - VSL - Big Bang Orchestra 
Sleigh Bells - Big Fish Audio / Fracture Sounds 
Cymbal Rolls - Albion One 
Timpani Rolls and Strikes - VSL - Big Band Orchestra
Tubular Bells - VSL - Big Bang Orchestra 
Concert Harp and Harp Harmonics - GPO5 (Garritan)
St Peter's Choir - Halion 6
YMIR Choir - VSL - Big Band Orchestra

A Yuletide Dream (Remastered 2023)

i reworked this song, I never really finished it when i posted it, i just kind of wanted to move on. This is a better song now.. I still can't get the vocals to sound right.. 
NOTE: I remixed this song, was able to get the pops and crackles out of the vocals

The evening fog had come, floating softly from the sea
and turned the world into a dream, where there is only you and me
when long ago we walked this shore,
and we had it all, but nothing more
not a memory you would keep
but it was everything to me

now time has burned away the fog, and we’ve come back to this place 
the silver sea and midnight sky underneath the milky way
but something’s lost along the way
where the water meets the sky so far away
it’s an illusion of the sea
they never really come to be

all I ever wanted, everything I thought I needed
I hoped to find in your heart     
If all of this meant nothing
then we’ve wasted all our time
We tried to be something we’re not
The same mistakes we’re making
The same bad road we’re taking 

It washes over me 
this is real, and not my dream
Let this be, go and find the one you need,
Who loves you for the things they see
Not what I want you to be
Not what you want me to be…

What I Wanted You To Be

As the old Soviet joke goes, “In the Soviet Union, we know what the future holds. It’s the past that’s always changing.”      (lyrics below, after the song description)                                             
                                                     ****************
In this small, quaint college town, the town-gown relationship, for most of the 150 plus years since the college’s founding, had been productive.  The town benefited economically,  & students appreciated the town's charm, history & heritage.   Often on sunny days, classes of students would visit the park at the downtown square, brought by their history professors to learn not only of the town's history, but also about eleven young local men lost in America's Civil War, memorialized by the modest statue of a lone soldier, who had stood like a sentry at the the park's entrance since 1905.

But times change, don't they...
                                                   ********************

More Americans died in the American Civil War than in any other war in our country's history, including each of the World Wars.  In my song, the word "Daughters" references the Daughters Of The Confederacy, a women's civic group formed in the 1890's by daughters (and wives & nieces) of men lost in that war.  The attached picture is the inscription on the base of a statue of a uniformed soldier, standing in a park in Dallas, Georgia, a small town 30 miles northwest of Atlanta.
                                                            



Lyrics....
My name is McKenzie, and Jenkins and Embry,
And eight other names you still hear in these parts,
For over a century, I stood quiet at the entry,
On East Main into Lafayette Park,
A plaque was engraved, told why I was placed,
On those gardened grounds,
In this Small American Town.

Commissioned in 1905,
By the Daughters for fathers who died,
I was erected to honor eleven so bold,
Not a single one knowing he’d never grow old,
On these boys account I’d forever stand proud,
Stand sturdy & stout,
In this Small American Town.

The kids from the college on Heritage Hill,
Would hold class in the park’s warm sunshine,
They learned of this cruel war we waged with ourselves,
How 600,000 had died,
And of eleven from here just about their age,
Small farmers & blacksmiths & craftsmen by trade,
None fought for cotton, not one owned a slave,
And they learned why the Daughters placed me on that mound,
To keep those boys’ memories around,
In this Small American Town.

But enlightened new students don’t meet in that space,
Through new glasses old wars just don’t look the same,
Now scholars say men who went off to that war,
Fought not out of duty, but hate,
I feared I’d be forgotten by Heritage Hill,
Yesterday’s soldiers, obscure battlefields,
But alas, rearranged history determined my fate,
                          **************
Wise men have long warned of changing the past,
Of purges & vengeance & iconoclasts,
Then one fateful night there was smoke rolling down from the Hill,

Quickly surrounded by torches of fire,
Cursing & spitting & rage in the air,
Rope round my shoulders, a cheer by the crowd,
I came crashing down to the ground….
                         **************
An uneasy quiet in the town since that day,
Hushed conversations about how things have changed,
But up on the Hill it’s all smiles & goodwill,
For it’s the 2nd weekend in May,
Ceremonial speeches, awards all around,
Uncles & aunts & parents in town,
To watch the sweet children who torched & burned me to the ground,
Be awarded their caps & their gowns,
In this Small American Town.

Small American Town

Cursed Moon

Some of Us is Me

2022 Janine Levinson
Guitar: Jonathan Beckenstein  @jonathan_beckenstein
   
I’m sorry that I’m not somebody else    
I’m sorry if I let my people down
I didn’t ask for anybody’s help        
I’m sorry that I waited for this long

But it’s like trying to move your life ahead with a stranger at the wheel 
While trying very hard to get along

I’m sorry that I wrecked my lover’s heart
I hope he knows I wrecked my own heart too
I should have looked somewhere outside myself
I hope there’s room for me inside of you

Cause I’ve been trying to stand up straight when I am broken past repair
And still trying very hard to fix what’s wrong 

Some folks have got it made 
Frolicking in the shade of live oak tree
But some of us we don’t sing so loud, 
And we’re looking down
Some of us is me

I sometimes wish tomorrow wouldn’t come
But yesterday has problems of his own 
Next to you’s the only thing I’ve got
I wish I knew someplace where I belonged   

And I’ve been trying to stand up straight 
‘Cause I was thinking you might share--
And make my little world not feel so wrong

Some folks have got it made 
Frolicking in the shade of live oak tree
But some of us we don’t sing so loud, 
And we’re looking down
Some of us is me

Some Of Us Is Me - with Jonathan Beckenstein

secrets

Secrets

EP A10
https://akitomisaki.bandcamp.com/album/a10

ead #7

When you give your self to someone, you will miss a part of you. But, at the same time, you´ll grow up together with the other person. The same thing happens when you collaborate with other artist. At the same time that something of you is lost, it is enriched in many other ways.
Sonic Kitchen has filled this piece with strength and color.
Please check it here: https://soundcloud.com/sonic_kitchen/sonic-kitchen-the-bird-inside-the-part-you-miss?si=dfccdcc4c3c94b61bb62f5f85f251cf8&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

THE PART YOU MISS

The title "Ballad for Alma" reminded me of an episode in the Book of Mormon, where the son of a presiding high priest went among the people, telling them to disbelief his father. Here I imagined what could be the father thoughts, with a small meditation on the nature of hope, faith, and charity.

BALLAD FOR ALMA

No one wants to be alone,
either in bliss or sorrow.
Angels above invite.
Demons from hell entice.

In the great fight for the souls
you chose to disbelieve it all,
join the skeptics, praise  the world,
delighted to play with fire.

Still I hope you'll come back home.
Hope is belief and desire.
New hearts are given to some.
Beliefs are our choice alone.

And then there's faith.
Faith is more than wishfull thinking.
Faith is hope with revelation
from the subtle mighty voice
that can burn, but cannot lie.

Thus I trust that voice to warn you.
Then you'll see and then you'll cry.
From the deepness of despair,
in the dire and lonely night,
all will seem beyond repair.
But what I told you will come to mind.
And then you'll remember the name you should call,
and it's going to be allright.

There's no charity in darkness:
It's a feature of the light.
Demons from hell entice,
but love will always invite.

Ballad For Alma JFC (Based on Neno J. guitar piece)

This is another tune I worked on last week when I was kidnapped, er, when I collaborated with Josh and his band of maniacal musicians.    These guys GIT R DUN I tell you . This one evolved lots just in the few days we worked it up.  
This is June Bug

June Bug  - (Eclectic Collective)

Musique EmmaJack
Paroles : Vincent Rothenburger
https://youtu.be/LLzR5PntlXM
Les pluies acides 
-Les parricides  Sont à plaindre Car ils sont orphelins -L'extralucide ne peut craindre les plis de son destin -Par temps humide Les noyés Lèvent les yeux au ciel -Les pluies acides Font pousser Les fleurs artificielles  Les catastrophes  Atténuent  La surpopulation -On a l’étoffe Décousue Des héros en cal’çon -L’amour trucide Sans pitié  Les marguerites si belles -Les pluies acides  Font pousser  Les fleurs artificielles  -Les W-C sont Sans issue Dans les débits d’ boisson -En avril on A pendu Haut et court les poissons -On se suicide par gaieté Car l’amour donne des ailes -Les pluies acides  Font pousser Les fleurs artificielles  -L’air se voit quand Il fait jour Les cibles sont plus belles -L’air nonchalant Des vautours A dévoré le ciel -Masques du vide Tes baisers Font des trous dans mes ailes -Les pluies acides  Font pousser Les fleurs artificielles

Les pluies acides 🌸

A collection of songs, instrumentals and orchestral pieces charting my adventures in home studio recording and production.  All original compositions using voice, acoustic and electric guitar (sometimes using altered tunings), bouzouki, low and high whistles and MIDI instrumentation. 

I'm also using VST instrumentation to create classical compositions and integrating orchestral sounds into my songs and instrumentals.

Links to various instrumental projects and other Social Media links are available below.

My Eclectic Music Connections repost thread is here

https://soundcloud.com/mrbouzouki-repost

A Yuletide Dream (Remastered 2023)

MrBouzouki

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