Classically trained, Jay brings the strengths of the past to modern film and religious composition. Strong melodys, rich harmony, coherent structure, and appropriate orchestration are at the heart of his music. Through these qualities, his music is able to bring human drama to a higher level.

A melody representing hope through upward jumps and overall ascension. The melody below forms the stucture of this melody, that is, this melody is an elaboration of the melody below. Having related melodies like this helps give a film both variety and coherence.

A melody representing peace through its simple, gentle repetition. The hope melody above this one is an elaboration of this one, which emphasises the similarity between peace and hope.

A melody representing sadness, which is accomplished in part by it supporting multiple lines at once (an upper and lower line) like a sad person who bears a multidimentional burden. This is similar to the technique used by John Williams in his sad melody from Schindler's List. The melody below this one forms the structure of this melody.

A melody representing somberness. Some composers to depict suffering, write music that feels despairing, which is accomplished among other things through melodies with little movement and a lot of repetition - like someone's life who is stuck in a rut. But despair is not uplifting. This melody avoids despair by suffiently moving, but is still able to show depth of suffering. It does so by creating a mood of somberness, which has a way out unlike despair, and is the first step to seriously dealing with and overcoming a challenge.

An arrangement of Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow for voice and piano. The words of this hymn proclaim to everyone everywhere to praise God. This arrangment likewise depicts multiple praisings by having both the voice and piano alternate the original melody. Lively material is put in the gaps in both parts to add to the excitement of praising God.

An arrangment of Though Deepening Trials for choir and piano. Bach's cantatas stand as great examples of using classical rhetoric (introduction, conflict, resolution, and conclusion), but they last 15 minutes on average, which is longer than the amount of time allocated for performed music in LDS church services. This arragement draws from Bach's example by integrating all the elements of classical rhetoric, but does so in one integrated song that is 4 minutes long.

Fire Creek

Spared by a God he doesn't believe in, Jason Malleck comes home carrying shrapnel wounds in his legs and the memory of his best friend dying in combat, and the question of why.

There are two basic themes in the music: fire representing suffering and water representing healing. Fire is subdivided into 3 related melodies: chaos, somberness, and sadness. Water is subdivided into 3 related melodies: peace, hope, and lightness. Thus, these same themes in the movie are deepened by the music.

Diana Wade

After Diana Wade's youngest child, Cindy, was born with Down syndrome, she became an activist for the rights of persons with disabilities.

The music's main theme was taken directly from Cindy's piano composition (heard at the beginning) to emphasise the narration of how accomplished Cindy is, but it also takes the theme further as does her mother in becoming an activist for persons with disabilities.

Flush

A young girl loses patience with her father taking too long talking to a man in a plumbing store and sets out to find a toilet all by herself in this true story.

The music is playful but not silly in order to respect the real feelings of the girl who lived this story.

Hamburger Soup

An older brother flicks a spoonful of hamburger soup at his younger brother, which causes the younger brother to throw the entire pot of soup at him.

The younger brother in this film goes from happy to mad to giving up to appreciative, and the music is changing with him, but not so much that it loses its independence and flow.

Contact Jay for your next project:
jay.packard@gmail.com
631-591-0436