Author Archives: sara-garrard

Long did I toil (ukulele version)

Been doing a bunch new little folk songs and hymn rewrites — but here’s one from a bit ago that I wrote on piano, that also works perfectly well on ukulele.

“Long did I toil”   
By Henry Francis Lyte

LONG did I toil, and knew no earthly rest,   
Far did I rove, and find no certain home;
At last I sought them in His sheltering breast,   
Who spreads His arms and bids the weary come:
With Him I found a home, a rest Divine,
And I since them am His, and He is mine.
Yes I since them am His, and He is mine.  

Yes, He is mine—and nought of earthly things   
Nor all the charms of pleasure, wealth, or power,
The fame of heroes or the pomp of kings,   
Could tempt me to forget His love one hour.
Go, worthless world, I cry, with all that’s thine:
I my Saviour’s am, and He is mine.
I my Saviour’s am, and He is mine.

Whate’er may change, in Him no change is seen;   
A glorious sun that wanes not nor declines;
Above the clouds and storms He walks serene,   
And sweetly on His people’s darkness shines:
Changes may come; I take or I resign,
Content while I am His and He is mine,
while I am His and He is mine.

Two kinds of music boxes

I’ve definitely ironed out some mechanical issues I was having in music box tape making, and made a couple 30 note tracks I’m really pleased with:

I’m also though trying out making pretty short and loopable ones back on the 15-note box; sounding something like a mini box with cylinder you might buy.

These are a lot quicker to make, obviously because they’re shorter and lesser in scope, but also specifically because it’s 15 notes all the diatonic ones of 2 octaves, it’s not too hard to write notes straight on and get a feel for where the notes are. (The 30 note box has a wider range with some chromatics, but only a few notes, all the chromatics in the middle, only tones towards the top etc — so it’s hard to glance at the grid and appreciate where a note might be. Though I’m sure you can learn it too…) But yeah, even though the tone of the bigger box is… mwah, beautiful… the smaller one is actually still very sweet and idiomatic and we can do things with it.

Songs of the West

Been sketching a few “faux folk” songs lately – just writing new but kinda in-genre tunes for lyrics from this 1890 collection, without reference to the tunes given. Here are three that are recorded all through.

That’s right it’s …

more music boxes. I will do something else at some point (as well as more music boxes. Actually I’m off and on thinking about how to do some bigger piece including a music box.)

One of these days I might make a post outlining “tips and tricks” of how to do these because I feel like I’ve racked up a bunch of things I could have used earlier. But at the same time I don’t think I’m anywhere near done discovering really obvious things, and I’m still having trouble making the tape feed smoothly as a main thing, so maybe not quite yet.

Anyway, absolutely loving the 30 note music box. It offers a LOT of potential and flexibility, and with the recent two (you can see a little preview of these) especially I’ve been trying to make more of the potential of the box and its kind of characteristic style.

This one is an arrangement of a piece in a really very different style, so that was fun! also involves winding the handle VERY FAST. Collapsed Expressway by Mitsuto Suzuki.

Things to come? Ahead On Our Way and Cloud Smiles by Nobuo Uematsu. Hear those runs! and octaves!

Tifa’s Theme music box

Tifa’s Theme (Final Fantasy VII) unofficial music box

I have a new music box … with 30 notes! Which means slightly bigger range than the 15 note but really more importantly, some chromatics. Tifa’s Theme from FFVII is the one I always wanted to do and really couldn’t with only diatonic notes, so I’m very happy to finally have made this. It also has a really nice tone, I think ❤️

Four Hildegard texts (2021)

SSAA unaccompanied | Duration: 7 minutes | Difficulty: Moderate

Sheet music on SMP or Gumroad.

Four settings of texts by Hildegard of Bingen, individually each between 1-2 minutes. They may be performed individually or as a set. Written without any reference to the (still available!) melodies written by Hildegard — you could perform them in that context however…

  1. O mirum admirandum
  2. Vos flores rosaum
  3. O virga mediatrix
  4. O choruscans lux stellarum
IV. O choruscans lux stellarum performed by OC Women’s Chorus, 2022
O mirum admirandum NOTE: recording is a 3rd lower than the printed music.
Vos flores rosarum
O virga mediatrix
O choruscans lux stellarum

More info: blog post


Clarinet choir version

This piece also exists in a version for clarinet choir, arranged by Peter Anthony Smith