Benjie Messer » Christmas

New Vocals at Spiritrax

benjie — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:12:00 +0000

Vocals have been recorded for two more Spiritrax ditties:

Do You Hear What I Hear
In case you’re missing Christmas as much as I am.

Were You There
Blatantly gory lyrics like this make me see Christianity as a superstitious cult that tells horror stories to children. But it was fun doing all the rain and thunder.

Is Christmas finally over, forever?

benjie — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 23:17:00 +0000

I spent most of the last three months filling up Spiritrax with Christmas carols, and I’m SO GLAD “the holidays” are finally behind me for a little while at least. Most of them don’t have guide vocals yet, but I thought I’d mention them anyway, since a lot of people would know them. You can now see all my tracks at Spiritrax by clicking the Spiritrax link in the “Recordings” box on the left.

MoreBork

benjie — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 18:45:00 +0000

Local video producer Mark Bork called us a few weeks ago to write some music for “A Magical Valley Christmas”, a Christmas special that he produces every December for his old hometown of Twin Falls, Idaho. He asked for original classical Christmas-y music, and my boss was busy with some other things, so I wrote it, Mark said it was perfect, and I’m psyched! My first original music used in multimedia! I can’t wait to see the completed video. I joined ASCAP, and now when that sucker is broadcast, they’ll send me a little check in the mail that they get from the broadcasting TV station- my first residual. Does AOL send them money when people download (or stream) it? This I don’t know.

Anyway, I can’t play that music for you, since it belongs to Mark now, but you can listen to the discarded 60-second sample that he didn’t use. It’s not too bad either, though I think he picked the better one.

New at Spiritrax

benjie — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:40:00 +0000

A month ago, we got a visit from a wonderful, classically-trained soprano named Melissa Guiley. Guess I forgot to post them here at the time.

Wonderful Peace
I didn’t know this song before I arranged it, but it’s my new favorite. I feel like I managed a nice natural build through the arrangement.

Oh Chanukah
Just in time for the CCCCChhhhhhholiday.

S’vivon
For the klezmer kiddies. Melissa’s Jewish, so we got her to do these Chanukah tunes.

And Mandi Leigh did two more of my Christmas arrangements last week:

O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum)
Pretty traditional.

Jingle Bells
When I put this on, Mandi said, “Oh, I’m in Disneyland!” I guess that’s sort’ve what I was going for.

Lots more, but I’ll post them once they have vocals.

New Spiritrax Vocals

benjie — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 19:56:00 +0000

We ran out of friends to sing guide vocals for our Spiritrax songs, so we advertised for singers on Craigslist and were lucky to get a call from Mandi Leigh. Mandi just got back from a tour of the Carribbean and Central America, and is going on an American college tour soon to promote her debut album, so we were lucky to catch her while she had some down time. She sang over three of my arrangements and sounds just wonderful.

Oh Holy Night
This is an orchestral track, slow and dramatic, intended for a solo performance. I wrote this imagining my teacher Pam Wood singing it- she’s an astonishing soprano- but Mandi’s pop alto worked great.

My Country ‘Tis of Thee
Another classical track, but with a smaller orchestra. Trying to be sweet and not bombastic.

Go Tell It On the Mountain
A funky groove. I like the organ parts on this one.