Practice video

Here is a computer generated flute with a follow-along prompt to help with learning the tune or practicing the chords.

(The video managed the repeats like this: AABB AB with the final ending played at the end, but you don’t have to do it that way. AABB AABB is fine.)

Sheet music preview

Sheet music download

The story behind the tune

I found this tune in a notebook right after Lament for Sarah June. They make a nice set when played together, with the slow air first, then the jig.

Pam wrote the first part in Bm and the second part in G, but I’ve put them it in Em/G because (a) I think she was trying for a minor-major modulation, and using the relative minor works just fine and is less confusing, and (b) this way it fits within the range of a recorder, flute or whistle. Chords are mine. -HH

The post June’s Jig appeared first on Pamela Holm 1960-2019.

For a hint of their deep, complex mother-daughter relationship, see this poem. Our mother’s memorial website is at JuneMaginley.ca.

Audio on tenor recorder

Heather Holm, tenor recorder

Practice video

Here is a computer generated flute with a follow-along prompt to help with learning the tune or practicing the chords.

Sheet music preview

Sheet music (PDF) and download

The story behind the tune

I didn’t find this tune until 2021 when my brother Mike was finally able to come to Nova Scotia with some of the boxes that I wasn’t able to get in my car after cleaning out Pam’s Ottawa apartment after her death, two years before.

I loved the tune from the beginning, but at first struggled with finding the metre, as Pam had apparently done as well. She had written it in 3/4 time, and attempted to count the measures to figure out the structure. That tells me that she created the tune in her head before putting it down on paper. It stuck in my head until one morning I woke up with the idea to write it in either 9/4 or 9/8 time. Suddenly it all made sense, with phrases that scanned. I’ve used 9/8 simply because it’s easier to read joined eighth notes than quarter notes. It’s not a fast tune.

She also wrote it in D, but I transposed it into a suitable range for tenor (or soprano) recorder, in G.

I’ve also worked the chords a lot, finally settling on the ones indicated. But there are other possibilities.

Pam may well have written it in 2014, as it’s in the same mostly empty notebook as early drafts of Another Bright Star and I Found a Place where Angelica Grows, which she sang at our mom’s funeral. But it’s opposite a written note dated 2017.

It can be followed in a set by June’s Jig which was on the next page in the journal.

The post Lament for Sarah June appeared first on Pamela Holm 1960-2019.

Video

Here’s Miranda Lever singing it, as part of a project to get Pam’s songs out into the world, off paper and onto video so people can hear them, and maybe sing them, too. Sheet music is below the video.

Sheet music

The post While He was Sleeping There with You appeared first on Pamela Holm 1960-2019.

So Pam made it into sultry song.

She never, to my knowledge, recorded it. I found it handwritten in a notebook along with many other original songs that amazed me as I emptied her apartment.

Video

I asked Miranda Lever to sing “A Recipe for Love” for a video.

Sheet Music

Lyrics

The post A Recipe for Love appeared first on Pamela Holm 1960-2019.

In this arrangement, Pam takes the traditional Happy Birthday song and the version sung to the tune of the Merry Widow Waltz, sets both in 4/4 time and adds some do-wop for SATB quartet or choir.

In the video below, you can experiment with tempo by clicking the gear icon bottom right and changing playback speed. I think 1.25 or 1.5 might be about right.

Her original is in the key of F. My son and I recorded it lower, in D, as in the video above. Contact me for the MuseScore (open-source software) file and you can transpose it to any key that suits you.

We also made this video version for our friend Peter’s 65th birthday during the COVID-19 isolation. Same soundtrack.

The post Hap-Happy Birthday for SATB appeared first on Pamela Holm 1960-2019.

Her original manuscript is reproduced further down.

I’ve made an arrangement from Pam’s chords, which could be played on piano or sung as parts – SAAB or SATB, or SAA with a cello playing the baseline. Maybe a soloist with vocal harmonies on the two “Ave Maria”s in the middle and the last 12 bars. Arrangers, feel free to make your own version! Do what you will with the “Amen” she wrote at the end.

Video

Here is Miranda Lever singing Pam’s “Ave Maria”.

Practice audio

Singalong: I’ve computer-recorded an instrumental version. Follow along with the sheet music below.

Here it is at 100 beats per minute (? = 100), maybe too fast.

If that’s a little fast, here it is again at ? = 80.

Sheet music

Lyrics

Ave Maria,
Lady of Ladies, Queen of our hearts.
Your mercy wafts on a gentle ray of light,
Softly penetrating even in the darkest of night.
Ave Maria
Join with our hearts, Lady, carry our prayers
to bring heav’n’s holy Light into hearts of despair.
Ave Maria
Be as a guide as we go through our day,
bringing Light to our path as you show us your way.
Ave, Ave Maria, Ave Maria,
Ave Maria.

Original manuscript

The post Ave Maria appeared first on Pamela Holm 1960-2019.

One of the most popular Hindu mantras, dedicated to Vishnu as Lord Krishna. (As I understand it, Krishna is considered an incarnation of Vishnu, one of the principal Hindu deities. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna reveals his divine form to Arjuna as this assemblage of manifestations of Vishnu.)

Pam’s original tune for it is quite lovely. Here she is singing it with a small group in a sound healing workshop in 2011.

Photo: Avatars of Vishnu by Flickr user https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/378256/in/photostream/, thanks also to Wikimedia Commons.

The post Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya (2010) appeared first on Pamela Holm 1960-2019.

Video

We recorded this song in 2020 near Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia.

Sheet music

Lyrics

The post Hold the World in Love appeared first on Pamela Holm 1960-2019.

It’s short, so I can imagine singing it through once, then have an instrumental break, then singing either the last half, or the whole thing again. I can also imagine it sung by a choir.

Waltz me round through the heavens in three quarter time.

Joy Dances Through Me, by Pamela Holm

Video

Here’s Miranda Lever singing it:

Sheet music

Lyrics

The post Joy Dances Through Me appeared first on Pamela Holm 1960-2019.

And the tug of war between life inland and shore, between work and wages and sea
Tears me apart, wrestles hard with my heart, and I long to be free …

From Home by the Ocean by Pamela Holm

Maritimers and would-be Maritimers love this song.

Videos

Mirth (Miranda Lever, Mary Knickle and Cynthia Myers) in St. John’s Church, Lunenburg, Aug. 31, 2022:

Miranda Lever solo in 2020.

Sheet music

Lyrics

The post Home by the Ocean appeared first on Pamela Holm 1960-2019.