Welcome!

You have reached the website of Joel Martinson, American composer, church musician, performer, and presenter.

This website exists to provide easy access to my compositions — published and unpublished — and information about my various endeavors in church music, music performance, composing, and sharing my knowledge via workshops.

What's Up! is an article describing my current experiences — there's an archive available at the end of the current posting. Browse the schedule to find opportunities to hear my music.

The Music's the Thing

Compositions

The heart of this website is the compositions area where you may explore my compositions, learn how to purchase music, and get instructions for interpreting and performing my music as I intend. Find detailed information about each composition including background information, corrections for known errors, and performance notes. The detail pages for compositions are being prepared and published as they are completed, and are periodically updated with new content, so check back frequently for the most current information. If you have a specific question about a composition, contact me and I will do my best to provide a quick answer.

My Publishing Project

I want you to know that any of my compositions can be made available to you for performance! Contact me about any piece, particularly if it's hard-to-find. The development of this website is an essential facet of my desire to increase the accessibility of my compositions. I am exploring vehicles to make recent compositions available and various ways to publish my compositions — especially pieces which have a smaller audience and require printing fewer copies than most publishers will consider. These include song cycles, choral masses, liturgical music, organ duos, concert pieces, and secular choral cycles.

Make New Music

Interested in commissioning a new work? See commissions for listings of works created through this process, a description of my usual procedures, and a sample agreement.

Performances and Presentations

Visit performer to learn about recent organ recitals and hymn festivals, including detailed programs and outlines. The presenter page has lists of workshop appearances and prepared presentation topics. I normally require scheduling one-year in advance. Contact me about my availability for appearances.

Participate!

Your participation makes our music more vibrant and will enrich everyone's experience when they use this website. I welcome your comments, reviews, programs from performances, photos, information about recordings of my compositions, clippings of media coverage, and information about my appearances. Contact me for ways to send your content.

For users browsing with Internet Explorer 6: You may experience a glitch when viewing this site — the left-hand side navigation menu disappears. It is there, but has been put at the bottom of the webpage. The bug is in Internet Explorer 6 (Thank you, Microsoft.) The webmaster is working on a fix.