10 Weeks:
A composition project in which I will write 10 quality pieces of music in 10 weeks.
Week 7: A Rainy Eve (Out with You) for Jazz Ensemble
Inspired by my girlfriend

A Rainy Eve (Out With You)

10 Weeks:
A composition project in which I will write 10 quality pieces of music in 10 weeks.
Week 8: Sanctus for solo quartet and 2 choirs
Technically not a new piece, but a new arrangement of an old piece. Originally for SATB, this piece has been revamped for a solo quartet with two choirs.

Sanctus

Inspired by a sleepless night, and written during same.

Awake at 2:16

My setting of the hymn and popular bluegrass tune Angel Band for TTBB male quartet.
Music by William Batchelder Bradbury, arranged by Justin Michael Hollenberg.
Quartet: Adam Rabenold, Charles Grove, Matthew Hollenberg, Justin Hollenberg

My latest sun is sinking fast
My race is nearly run
My longest trials now are past
My triumph has begun

Chorus
Oh come angel band
Come and around me stand
Bear me away on your snow white wings
To my immortal home
Bear me away on you snow white wings
To my immortal home

I'll bear my longing soul to him
Who bled and died for me
Whose blood now cleanses from all sins
And brings me victory

[chorus]

I know I'm near the holy ranks
Of friends and kindred dear
I brush the dew on Jordan's banks
The crossing must be near

[chorus]

I've almost gained my heavenly home
My spirit loudly sings
The holy ones, behold they come
I hear the noise of wings

[chorus]

Angel Band

Doesn’t it seem like decades ago when we first set out to roam?
Oh the sights that we’ve seen! Could you imagine it if we had never left home?
Now it seems we’re so far from where we’d begun,
In the shade of a land that’s lost sight of the sun,
Through the wounds and the battles and friends that we’ve lost and we’ve won...

Still, I am glad you are here with me, Friend, Here at the end of all things.

The weight of the world has been lifted from me, and now I’m consumed in my shame.
To think, that the evils I sought to destroy with you nearly had me in their claim.
Yes, it’s easy to think of what we should have been,
And of all of the wonders that we haven’t seen,
And of grass, and of water, and women, and all in-between…

Still, I am glad you are here with me, Friend, Here at the end of all things.

I’m sitting here thinking, as we bake and bleed,
Of all of the people who now will be freed.
It seems that our finest success will be our final deed...

Still, I am glad you are here with me, Friend, Here at the end of all things.
Still, I am glad you are here with me, Friend, Here at the end of all things.

The Last Words Of Hobbits

Merry Christmas....in June?
I started this in December and it's finally done! So enjoy some Christmas cheer on your summer day. Jesus was really born in the summer anyway, wasn't he?
This is a midi representation, so not everything you hear sounds exactly the way it would be performed.
*Edit: this piece has now been updated! I've learned a lot since I first wrote this piece, but I still like the arrangement so much I thought it could use a tweak. Look out for an updated recording later this year!

Christmas Day in the Morning

The love, the life,
The joy, the strife,
The doubt, the shame,
The sadness & pain,
The lows, the highs,
The hope that dies,
It comes and goes - 
It ebbs and flows - 
And nobody knows.

The truths, the lies,
Hellos and goodbyes,
The hurt that numbs,
The laughter that comes,
The ecstacy,
And what could be.
It comes and goes - 
It ebbs and flows - 
And nobody knows.

Waves

10 Weeks:
A composition project in which I will write 10 quality pieces of music in 10 weeks.
Week 4: Reflections, a 3-movement minimalist piano duet.
Reflections is a 3-movement minimalistic work for 2 pianos. Each movement references a famous mirror in literature. The first movement references Lewis Caroll's second book featuring Alice: Through the Looking Glass. The piece animates her playing with her cats Snowdrop and Kitty, up through the point where she travels to the mirror world. The two pianos are to be positioned either side by side, or back to back, and the players are to mirror movements, as if playing in front of a mirror. This piece treats the keys E4 and F4 as the central axis, basing all reflection around that point. Whatever happens on one piano on one side of the axis, the exact same thing happens on the other piano on the opposite side of the axis, so that it actually will look  and sound like a mirror image.

Reflections I. The Looking Glass

10 Weeks:
A composition project in which I will write 10 quality pieces of music in 10 weeks.
Week 4: Reflections, a 3-movement minimalist piano duet.
Reflections is a 3-movement minimalistic work for 2 pianos. Each movement references a famous mirror in literature. The second movement references the Grimm fairy tale of Snow White. The evil queen asks her magic mirror in her hand who is the fairest woman in her land, only to find to her dismay that there is a woman more beautiful than her. The two pianos are to be positioned either side by side, or back to back, and the players are to mirror movements, as if playing in front of a mirror. This piece treats the keys E4 and F4 as the central axis, basing all reflection around that point. Whatever happens on one piano on one side of the axis, the exact same thing happens on the other piano on the opposite side of the axis, so that it actually will look  and sound like a mirror image.

Reflections II. Mirror, Mirror

10 Weeks:
A composition project in which I will write 10 quality pieces of music in 10 weeks.
Week 4: Reflections, a 3-movement minimalist piano duet.
Reflections is a 3-movement minimalistic work for 2 pianos. Each movement references a famous mirror in literature. The third movement references The Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The Portrait serves as a mirror to Dorian's inner self; with every evil act, the portrait becomes more and more deformed. It isn't until Dorian stabs his portrait in the end of the novel that the portrait is returned to its former beauty, although ultimately it turns out to be his demise. The two pianos are to be positioned either side by side, or back to back, and the players are to mirror movements, as if playing in front of a mirror. This piece treats the keys E4 and F4 as the central axis, basing all reflection around that point. Whatever happens on one piano on one side of the axis, the exact same thing happens on the other piano on the opposite side of the axis, so that it actually will look  and sound like a mirror image.

Reflections III. Portrait To The Soul

JMHollenberg Music is my way of sharing my original compositions, as well as the songs written under the name of my songwriting project - Railway Shepherd.
Railway Shepherd (previously Sheep in Wolf's Clothing) is a solo project inspired primarily by folk and americana styles both new and old. 
My original compositions range in style and instrumentation. I am comfortable writing for a wide variety of performing ensembles or soloists, blending classical composition and modern music techniques. I have now had several original works and arrangements premiered by friends and colleagues across the east coast.

Railway Shepherd

Popular tracks