Edvard Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway in 1843. He studied piano from the age of six, and by his late teens he had enrolled in the Conservatory at Leipzig. His music was a synthesis of traditional German harmonic theory, and Norwegian elements, such as modal melodies and Hardinger Fiddle. He died in 1907. Grieg’s… Read more »
Posts By: William Johnston
Theory III Listening Assignment – Schumann’s Dichterliebe
Robert Schumann was born in Zwickau, Saxony on June 8th, 1810. From age 7, he studied piano and composition. However, due to a worsening weakness in his right hand, he gave up piano and focused on composition and music criticism. In 1840 he married concert pianist Clara Wieck and had eight children. Two years before… Read more »
Windows 7 Homegroups and Shares
For future reference, if you want two home computers to talk to each other, try adding them to the same homegroup. It somehow affects the sharing so that the credentials work.
Sysprep Problems
I recently had an issue with Windows Deployment Services where I has created an image using sysprep, but on installing it I was greeted with the error message: “Windows could not finish configuring the system. To attempt to resume configuration, restart the computer.” I figured out by accident that if you reboot the system, hold… Read more »
Theory III Listening Assignment – Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique
The French composer Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was one of the earliest composers following Beethoven to typify the romantic era. As a young man, he played several instruments and wanted to be a composer. However, his parents insisted that he study medicine. He hated medical school and eventually left it… Read more »
Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted
A four part harmonization of Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted for organ. The gaps between the bass and tenor are frequently too large to play on piano, although you can transpose some notes up an octave to compensate. Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted – Finale recording of organ Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted.mus – Finale 2010 Source Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted – PDF of… Read more »
Here I Am, Lord
I wrote this for the Salem Lutheran Church 2010 Women’s Enrichment Weekend where it was used as the theme hymn. It is arranged for piano and congregation. It has an introduction in C major, but modulates to G major for the vocal section. Here I am, Lord – full – Finale’s playback on a virtual Steinway Here… Read more »
Carol of the Bells – Piano arrangement
This is an arrangement of Carol of the Bells for piano. It is relatively simple although it does have some tricky jumps and rhythms. This piece was arranged mostly to play with Finale 2010 which I had just purchased. Carol of the Bells – Finale recording using virtual Steinway Carol of the Bells.mus – Finale 2010 Source Carol of… Read more »
Veni, Veni Emmanuel
I wrote this piece as part of the 2009 MYS Summer Composition workshop. It is an arrangement of Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel for a chamber orchestra. The actual orchestration was determined by what instruments the other participants played. It is scored for Violin I and II, Viola, Cello I and II, Guitar (which should… Read more »
HymnSoft rewrite
I have been working on reverse engineering HymnSoft and creating a new client that works on the existing data. I am ready to release an early version. I am calling it TfosHnyh (hint: backwards). It currently parses the hymnsoft hymn database and displays the information. It also plays the hymns, both four-part, and melody. It… Read more »