Mama's Song

My mother, Helen French Robertson Moring, passed away in December 2010 due to complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD).  You can read my December 2010 post about her, and our musical connection, at my other blog here.

The score can be found here at Sheet Music Plus.

On July 6, 2011, I finally finished one of those projects that we had planned to do together. Mama wrote a song years ago, as a young girl. It may be better to say that she "made it up", since she could not read or write music. She played beautifully "by ear", however.

The name of the song was "In the Arms of Jesus", and there were never any lyrics, just the tune. A phone conversation with my late aunt LaVelle Langley in August 2011 confirmed this. Also, Aunt LaVelle recalls hearing Mama play it often, which is something that my brother and sister do not recall - understandable, since they did not spend as much time with Mama at the piano as I did.

I wanted to make videos of Mama's playing while she was still alive, but she had "camera fright", and arthritis got to her before the COPD-related dementia did. The touch of my Baldwin baby grand was too heavy for her to play comfortably.  I promised her for years that I would write "her song" down.

When I was done, I decided to make a demo video to share with friends and family on Facebook. The original plan was to make another video for YouTube later and on a better instrument.  This beloved Baldwin, a college-graduation gift from Mama and Papa Doug, has not been tuned since nineteen-eighty-something - one of the "downsides" of living in the country is finding a reliable tuner/technician.

In the end I decided to post the "rough video" on YouTube, and it was the only version up for a few years.  After all, this is where I had most recently heard her play HER version, on this piano in this room,  and this was the last opportunity I had to "film" myself playing there.

I have left her tune as is and recast it in "my style", rather than in the hymn-like chordal way in which she played it (much to the dismay of my brother, who still wants me to make a block chord arrangement).  I have also retitled it "Mama's Song",

Why?

Because we all have different religious beliefs, but we all have - or have had - a Mama.

Here is the first video, made in the early morning hours after the piece was written.

The score can be found here at Sheet Music Plus.

On May 24, 2015 (the 26th would have been her 85th birthday), I finally made a video on the excellent Yamaha piano at Franklin (Georgia) United Methodist Church.

The score can be found here at Sheet Music Plus.

Helen French Robertson Moring

May 26, 1930 - December 29, 2010

I will always be a Mama's boy.

**