Tito's Music and Book Blog is an online journal of what’s happening with Tito Abeleda as author and Tito Abeleda as composer, producer, publisher for Visionary Quest Records as well as his personal thoughts, contemplations, and advocacy for the arts, its artists, and other salient issues within the arts and entertainment industry.
I’m happy to announce that my single Romantic Notions is now published and available on JW Pepper, Sheet Music Plus, and Sheet Music Direct:
JW Pepper - https://bit.ly/RomanticNotions_JW-Pepper
Sheet Music Plus - https://bit.ly/39445B3
Sheet Music Direct - https://bit.ly/3Nrl5ju…
My new orchestral piece Warriors’ Last Stand is now published on Sheet Music Plus.
Imagine! The enemies have attacked on two fronts. The fight to overcome the adversity appears futile. The warriors consolidate their energy and position to defend their honor and their families. The odds do not look favorable. But they will not give up for it is the Warriors' Last Stand….
The seeds of passion and creativity can germinate in so many different ways. This amazing photograph captures an aspect of passion and creativity. A beautiful grand piano embodies a passionate piano moment as it sits in the Sala del Minor Consiglio in Palazzo Ducale, Geno, Italy with a backdrop of Renaissance paintings….
This past week I had been contemplating the utter desperation that seems to have surrounded us in living our day to day life from politics to Covid-19 and pervading social injustice. To process these emotions and to achieve some type of catharsis, I started to write music that would convey this desperation that fuels our actions. Everything seems to be a matter of life and death. To uplift our spirits I wrote music that reflected our actions and emotions but also to give us strength and hope so that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. This too shall pass. We can get through this together.
I share with you…
We all do it in some form or another and for different reasons. How would that translate musically? Sometimes we’re running because we’re late. Other times, we’re running because we’re frantically searching for something. Others find themselves doing the chasing, while others are running away from those chasing them down. Sometimes, we’re simply trying to sneak out and get away. This is….
Music moves people in such different ways due its emotional connection with its listeners. Emotional music moves me in such a profound way. Similarly, It flows naturally from within me for outer expression when I write music. In hindsight, whenever I had a choice to choreograph dance pieces many years ago, I would choose very emotional, dark music to share stories that also had a sad dark premise. So, it appears that my creative self-expression comes from an inner desire to express that which I usually do not express in my normal course of interaction with the rest of the world. People often describe me as having a happy-go-lucky, jovial, exuberant persona. Carl Jung believed that there is a mechanism of balance between the inner and outer life of a person. Nature in its grand scheme seeks balance. Weather is an excellent example. From that perspective, that makes some sense. However, creating music is much more than that. Music goes deeper than that. From personal experience in observing other artists as well as myself, I venture to say that composers’ creations embody their personal stories plus the emotions that are a very deep integral aspect of their stories expressed through musical sounds. A composer’s creation becomes music when a listener makes a connection with a composer’s creation in a personal way to the listener. Hence, every person is moved by different types of music. What I find to be music to my ears may not be music to another’s ears. A composer’s story or emotional intention may not be exactly the same to the meaning attributed by the listener. It is the listener’s connection with the composer’s creation that results in music to one’s ears. A listener becomes a fan when that listener identifies and connects with much of a music creator’s music. The old adage “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’ speaks a truth for music creators that music is in the ears of the beholder. So, composers hope …
I wonder if James Lord Pierpont had swag in his time. Well, he does now at least with this new twist on Jingle Bells. Jingle Bells originally composed by James Lord Pierpont in 1857. It was published as One Horse Open Sleigh intended for Thanksgiving holiday. This arrangement modifies this public domain piece with instrumentation and genre. It has been arranged as a hip-hop rap solo with clean slightly modified original lyrics to give an authentic hip-hop urban feel. This is an easy and should provide some refreshing
Good morning, Good evening my friends and colleagues,
I hope those of you who are just rising to greet this wonderful day are awakening to a day that will be nothing less awesome. I also hope that my other dear friends and colleagues who are soon ending their work day had a satisfying productive day. Today I wanted to share my experience with SMP Press especially those of you who haven’t yet decided to give this program a try. First, I will start off by saying the folks here at SMP Press at Sheet Music Plus have given me such stellar customer service as a composer contributor. SMP Press is an awesome program. But its awesome factor is deep and personal to me on several levels. Your experience may be different. The timing of my discovery of SMP Press had such a profound impact on me. I believe that if there's opportunity for a creative person to be creative – to create and to self-express, that artist should feed and nurture that aspect of his own soul and being. What gives a person fulfillment and meaning? What is a person's happy place? Sometimes people joke about having been temporarily in their happy place, having spent an atypical weekend doing the atypical. Yet, this atypical weekend was so extraordinarily satisfying - it was both named as a desired goal and a recognition of what it means to be happy. Then why was this so atypical? Should not our life pursuits be focused on achieving our dreams, that which brings happiness. If composing or arranging music is what makes one happy, then why do anything else? If there are opportunities to compose new music or to add new life to existing music with a new arrangement, wouldn't you seize those opportunities?
SMP Press has spent considerable time and effort to gather and build a global, creative powerhouse of independent composers, songwriters, and music publishers to provide customers of Sheet Music Plus (SMP) with the bonus of original music compositions often not available anywhere else in the world. In addition to these original works, SMP Press has established a special arrangement with music publisher Hal Leonard that allows SMP Press composers to search a database of copyrighted music with over a million titles of copyrighted music, pre-cleared for SMP Press composers to create musical arrangements of these songs that are under copyright protection. Nowhere else will you find this. Of course, there are specific restrictions as to what type of musical arrangements are permitted to SMP Press composers. Large ensembles such as show choirs, marching band, wind ensemble, and orchestra are not permitted. However, solo to small ensembles are permitted. Mashups or medleys are also not permitted. These restrictions only apply to the SMP Press sheet music database of copyrighted music. SMP composers are free to compose original compositions in any way they like, for any mode of expression, from soloist, duet, small ensemble to a large orchestra. Composers, the world is still your oyster. (Sheet Music Plus, 2019)
Visionary Quest Records continues to expand its reach in the sheet music score arena publishing its modern classical Tears from My Eyes music series collection with Score Exchange.
“Score Exchange is the largest online retailer of new sheet music from composers and arrangers all over the world. ScoreExchange.com offers thousands of sheet music scores for download for every instrumentation imaginable - from solo pieces to works for full orchestra, from classical to pop.” (ScoreExchange.com, 6/22/19)
Score Exchange offers a bundle of benefits and simplicity to both…
