The title is unapologetic advertising for the fact that I released a Christmas music EP a couple of days ago onto streaming sites. You can listen to it on Apple Music, Spotify, or YouTube, depending on your tastes. Those links should put you in the right place for whichever service you're using.
While you're there you may notice that this is not the first thing I've released under that artist. It is, in fact, the third, following my marching music album and a single about Star Trek (it's a deep cut, don't feel bad if you have to Google it). What differentiates this EP from those earlier releases is that it's actually new.
By way of clarification, the music on my earlier releases is music I wrote many years ago, during high school and my first year of college. Essentially all I did to prepare those tracks for release was dust off the audio files, balance the track volumes, and make album artwork. Veni, Veni, on the other hand, required some actual effort. Three of the five tracks are, in fact, based off of arrangements I made when I was younger, maybe about 22. But aside from the piano solo of Oh Holy Night they have been doctored or re-arranged to improve their suitability for release. God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen features new instrumentation to support a run time originally intended for vocals, and Carol of the Bells is frankly just a lot cooler now.
On top of that this EP features two new arrangements of classic Christmas carols, including a string quartet arrangement of I Wonder as I Wander and the title track Veni, Veni Emmanuel. These songs are the first musical arrangements I've written and properly produced in... over a decade. And even setting aside the production aspect they represent the first new arrangements or compositions I've properly completed in well over 6 years. I can see why this might not look terribly exciting to most people. "So you've picked back up an old hobby," you might say, "that's nice."
And yes, it is nice. But what makes it exciting to me is that this arrangement of Veni, Veni Emmanual is, in my opinion, the single strongest composition I've ever made. As a package that track feels high quality and complete in a way that I don't often push myself to achieve. Which means, I hope, that my ability to compose hasn't utterly atrophied from those periods of disuse. Was it like getting back on a bike after an extended period of not riding?
Actually yeah. And it feels pretty dang good. You should go check it out, there's a reasonably wide spectrum of styles on the EP so probably at least one of the tracks will work for you. Links are, again, at the top of the page.
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