Mormon Bloggers

Beautiful Savior Would you believe that the hymn, Beautiful Savior, was written in the 1600s? Crazy, huh? I’ve always loved the song, and had fun coming up with an arrangement for it. Let me know if you’d like me to make the sheet music available for purchase. I usually choose what music to put on sheet music based on the demand, so let me know if you’d like it in sheet music! Beautiful Savior by Author Unknown, 1677 Beautiful Savior, King of Creation, Son of God and Son of Man! Truly I’d love Thee, Truly I’d serve Thee, Light of my soul, my Joy, my Crown. Fair are the meadows, Fair are the woodlands, Robed in flowers of blooming spring; Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer; He makes our sorrowing spirit sing. Fair is the sunshine, Fair is the moonlight, Bright the sparkling stars on high; Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer, Than all the angels in the sky. Beautiful Savior, Lord of the nations, Son of God and Son of Man! Glory and honor, Praise, adoration, Now... Read the rest of this entry »

Amazing Grace The classic Christian hymn, Amazing Grace, was written by John Newton in 1772. John has an interesting story. As a slave trader, John had a profitable career. Later, seeing the error of slavery, he turned his heart and devoted the rest of his life to the abolition of slavery. As one feeling the need for divine grace for his involvement in the horror of slavery, he said, “I hope it will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me . . . that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.” Obviously, our actions must reflect our efforts to follow the Savior, Jesus Christ, but all of us, at some time in our lives, come to the realization that there is no hope without His help. Then, once coming upon that beautiful grace and forgiveness, we find that his mercy is a necessary part of our existence every hour of every day. Without the Lord, we have nothing, but with Him we have everything. We can and should do all in our power... Read the rest of this entry »

Battle Hymn of the Republic Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord… His truth is marching on. The sheet music is finally ready! Click to learn how to buy it. Battle Hymn of the Republic has always been my favorite patriotic song, as it captures the why of all that the founding fathers of America did. The strength of their devotion to God, and the faith they had in Jesus Christ gave them the courage to move forward when they knew it could cost their lives and the lives of their families. The lyrics were written in 1861 by Julia Ward Howe. The tune belonged to another song, which was more of a spoof than a serious song. When a friend suggested to Julia that she write new words to the music, Julia took the challenge. The new lyrics came to her when she woke early one morning. She said, “I went to bed that night as usual, and slept, according to my wont, quite soundly. I awoke in the gray of the morning twilight; and as I lay waiting for the dawn, the long lines of... Read the rest of this entry »

We’ll Bring the World His Truth I’ve always loved the primary song, We’ll Bring the World His Truth. I was asked to play a musical number in a stake priesthood meeting a couple weeks ago, and the topic was missionary work. I decided this was a great excuse to come up with an arrangement for it. Let me know if you’d like me to make it into sheet music. I’ll have to get permissions from Janice Kapp Perry for that, since the sheet music wouldn’t be free, but I’m willing to get permission if you guys want to be able to play it! Either way, enjoy! Chas  Read More →

The following gem was originally published by David Kenison.  Copyright 1998 LDS Gems. —– One of the greatest of our traditional Christmas hymns is one of the most familiar. Even though it actually speaks very little about “the Christmas story”, the exuberance and happiness of the hymn seem to epitomize the spirit of the Christmas season: [...]  Read More →

In just a few days, I will be leaving to the Missionary Training Center and then I will be off to the Arizona Tempe Mission, Spanish-speaking! This means that I will be setting this blog aside for two years as I serve the Lord as an LDS missionary. Therefore, I will not be able to provide readers with “free music alerts” from sources such as Positive Music and Downloads. Here are the sources that I check, if you would like to keep up-to-date! Positive Music and Downloads has a new free song every Friday for the first 100 downloaders daily for a week. After the week is past, the song won’t be free. There is a link to the left of the site (“Free Download”) that will take you directly to the current free song. Or, you can sign up for the site’s newsletter; the free download link will be at the top right of the newsletter on Fridays. LDSTunesNow features a new free song about once a month; usually within the first week of each month. There is a link to the free song’s album page,... Read the rest of this entry »

Music from General Conference: Music from the most recent LDS General Conference (April 4-5, 2009) has been posted at the Church web site (at the above link). Music is also online from the October 2008 conference. Saturday Morning Session (Mormon Tabernacle Choir): The Morning Breaks; Press Forward, Saints; Israel, Israel, God Is Calling; Now Let Us Rejoice (congregational); Consider the Lilies; My Redeemer Lives. Saturday Afternoon Session (Combined Choirs, Salt Lake Area Institutes of Religion): Come, Thou Glorious Day of Promise; Come, O Thou King of Kings; Let Us All Press On (congregational); Sing We Now at Parting. Priesthood Session (Men’s Choir from BYU-Idaho): Sing Praise to Him; Father in Heaven; High on the Mountain Top (congregational); I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go. Sunday Morning Session (Mormon Tabernacle Choir): Praise to the Lord; Sweet Hour of Prayer; You Can Make the Pathway Bright; Redeemer of Israel (congregational); This Is My Beloved Son; We... Read the rest of this entry »

MormonMusic.org was released on Monday, April 6, 2009. It was actually available online a few days before that (though not officially). I haven’t been able to write about it until now due to time-consuming homework, General Conference summaries on my other blog, etc. Anyway, here are my thoughts. Related Post: Coming Soon: MormonMusic.org (26 March 2009). It’s clear that a lot of work has gone into the design of MormonMusic.org. On the home page is found LDS news and LDS music news. As of now, it mainly consists of LDS musician biographies – but hopefully the news will become more diversified and current as relavant stories arise. To the left of the home page is an HTML hyperlink list of recently-added music and a list of randomly-selected music. I think an embedded sequential playlist would fit nicely here instead; there are tons of free embeddable music players online. Then people would be able to actually listen to the music as they are browsing. On the right side of every page... Read the rest of this entry »