music

I’ve been making music for myself since I was a kid, but have only shared it with friends and family – until now. Please be nice about my attempts. 🙂

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July 10th, 2012

Finally, here is my first musical effort I’m sharing on the web: Lullaby for my Children. I admit I’m pretty nervous about this, since it’s a very personal song and I’m no professional musician, but my husband and sisters convinced me it was worth sharing. So, if you know any mamas (or other folks) who need a song like this, you are welcome to share it.

All the voices heard are mine, recorded using Garage Band on my MacBook Pro. (Thank you, Apple, for making it so easy to sing with lots of voices, all by myself.)

If you are wondering why you didn’t know that I can write choral music, well – I didn’t either, until I wrote some. It helps a lot to have a digital piano to experiment on.

If you are wondering what inspired it, the story is here.

The images accompanying my song are not mine. They were the images that I felt blended with the music – and moved me – the most.

They are as follows, in order:
Lullaby, by Francis Day
Mother and Child, by Gustav Klimt
Sleep, Baby, Sleep, by Erika Hastings
Lullaby, by Alexander Maranov
Little lost soul angel baby, by Catt Kyriacou
Be Discovered, by Katie M. Berggren
Peace Within, by Katie M. Berggren
Lullaby, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Lullaby, by Trisha Romance
Lullaby, by Yury Salko
Lullaby, by George Goodwin Kilburne
Maternity, by Pablo Picasso
Whitney, by Kathryn Morris Trotter

Words and music for Lullaby for my Children copyright D.C.S. Stephens, 2012.

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January 3rd, 2013

Here is instalment #2, A Prayer for Your Family. It was originally written in 2006 for a friend who lost her husband, and it was my first attempt at choral music. I wrote it with the help of my digital piano and Mozart musical notation software. I didn’t know if I’d ever hear it sung.

On December 14th, 2012, when Newtown, Connecticut lost so many of its children and other brave community members, I wished (as we all did) that I could do something. I thought of my song. Now that I’d used GarageBand to record multiple voices at different times, I wanted to give this a try. With the help of a few caring people, I was able to get all the parts covered and make a recording. The whole story behind this project can be read here.

Words and music for A Prayer for your Family copyright D.C.S. Stephens, 2012.

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Here is #3: Ukulelove, a silly song to make us feel better about the wintriest winter we’ve had in a long time. Full post, with credits and inspirations, is here.

Words and music for Ukulelove copyright D.C.S. Stephens, 2014.

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