Choral, Instrumental and Chamber Music Compositions and Arrangements

Welcome to this portfolio of musical compositions and arrangements, and thank you for your interest!
In the right-hand column beneath here you should see an alphabetical list of works. You can also choose a list of works with a particular label. Alternatively, you can search for a keyword. (Transcriptions and unpublishable works are listed in a page linked at the bottom, if you are interested.) The files here are all freely available. They do carry copyright, but feel free to adapt and/or perform them as you wish, as long as you print/acknowledge the originator (me!) It is always nice to hear from you if you use any of these compositions and arrangements (my email: philiplebas@gmail.com), but this is not a requirement. My main hope, as for many composers, is simply that the works are performed and appreciated. Happy music-making!
Philip

Key to linked files:
pdf = printed score or parts
mp3 = sound file
midi = midi sound file
mxl = compressed MusicXML source file
sib = Sibelius source file, mostly in Sibelius 8 or Sibelius Ultimate format
sib 6 = Sibelius version 6 source file

For access to many of these works via a commercial publisher, go to SheetMusicPlus/published-by-Philip-Le Bas.

Deep River (piano solo)

Scoring: piano solo

Date: 2020
"Deep river, my home is over Jordan. I want to cross over into camp ground.
Oh, don't you want to go to that gospel feast, that promised land where all is peace?
Deep river, my home is over Jordan. I want to cross over into camp ground."

The River Jordan is not in fact very deep, nor is it very wide. However, the longing to cross over it into "campground" in the "promised land" is very deep indeed! Based on the biblical story of Moses and the tribes of Israel wandering in the desert for forty years, this song is about exile and yearning for somewhere to belong. It applies to everyone, not just to the African-Americans who first sang this song, with their own history of heartache over so many centuries. Anyone who feels alienated by life and who is searching for inner peace is invited to respond to its soulfulness. Surprisingly - says the song - there are those who don't want to go "to that gospel feast". But the song just continues its own search for the promised peace, convinced that the answer lies deep within us, perhaps across our own, personal "deep river". The old African-American Spiritual "Deep River" is here set for piano solo in a relatively straightforward arrangement, based on the arranger's own barbershop quartet setting of the same song. It is to be played soulfully!

In the mp3 file here, and the video score below, the piano is played by me (as computers don't do soulful!)

Links: pdf - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib - sib 6



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