New music - 'La Chatte Perdue'

‘La Chatte Perdue’ clocks in at over 16 minutes long. Full orchestra.

More info and audio previews available in the store.

New Composition: 'The Orphan of Eisenach'

When I was a boy of 10 or so, my Dad started building out the unfinished basement in our suburban Annapolis home to make more room for our family of five.

My two sisters were getting pretty cramped in their shared bedroom and I was happy to move downstairs where construction was proceeding on my new bedroom and a family room and another full bath, as well as some man-space for Dad - a quiet corner with a desk, and a workshop.

Even before the rooms in the basement were complete, I moved down there and the sisters each got their own bedroom upstairs.

Dad was teaching Physics at the US Naval Academy and finishing up his coursework for a Ph.D.

In the evenings, Dad would study - he said the hardest part of the curriculum for his Ph.D. was the foreign language requirement - and he was really struggling to learn enough German to pass. While the basement construction project was in progress given whatever time he could afford to give it, my bed and his desk were in pretty close proximity. I often fell asleep listening to the small FM radio he always had tuned to one of the classical music stations out of Washington or Baltimore, while he studied by the light of a small fluorescent desk lamp.

So even though during my conscious hours I was starting to listen to John Denver, The Beatles, Gordon Lightfoot, and other rock/folk/pop artists as I learned to play the guitar, my brain was getting soaked with baroque and related early orchestral music from Dad’s radio.

Now that modern computing and digital audio have come together to allow all of the sounds of an orchestra to be ‘played’ from a computer or piano keyboard with excellent fidelity and realistic-sounding technique, it’s possible to write music for the orchestra without having to assemble a large group of talented and proficient musicians, nor rent a soundstage or studio.

So I can sit here and allow the reflections of those sounds I heard falling asleep as a kid reassemble themselves into new combinations and I can instruct the computer to play the notes I hear in my head with the instrument and articulation I choose.

This partcular composition I have titled, ‘The Orphan of Eisenach’ as a tribute to Johann Sebastion Bach, who was born in Eisenach in the very center of Germany at the end of March in 1685, and who was orphaned at the age of ten. It is also in a way an assertion of hope for all of those who are suffering under the attack on Ukraine by Russian armed forces, especially the children.

Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann in 1746, when Bach was 61 years old.

Here are some musical excerpts. I hope to release the complete composition - which runs over nine minutes - here soon.

Thanks for listening. And thank you, Mom & Dad, for giving me the chance to hear, learn, and play music.

A DOZEN of my Original Compositions Now Available for Download Here

Twelve of my original musical compositions can now be downloaded in high-quality Audio Interchange File Format. These .AIF files can be played by most recent audio players including Microsoft Windows Media Player (Windows), Apple QuickTime Player (Mac), Apple Music (Mac), and VideoLAN VLC media player (multiplatform).

The tracks range across several genres including jazz, orchestral/classical, new age, and even bluegrass. You can listen to MP3 audio previews here.

Writing these has been a real source of joy for me - my hope is that listening to them allows you to experience the magic of music.

A few years in the making.

Track artwork for ‘From a Dream to a Day’.

Track artwork for ‘Uh-Oh’.

Yikes. Over here on the music side of life, I’ve not updated this blog for a very long time.

So:

There are some new compositions. A couple of jazzy ones and a couple of orchestral ones. As soon as I get things straightened out with Apple about why a lot of my work does not seem to appear on my Apple Music artists page, I’ll update here with all of the links.

In the meantime, there are excerpts to hear here. And here. Enjoy.

New music - "On A Rising Wind" - released

My longest composition so far.  I have been volunteering with the National Park Service doing some raptor monitoring, and have had flight on my mind a lot lately.  I think some of the musical themes in "On A Rising Wind" reflect that.

The track photo is a composite of two of my photos with an falcon in the foreground and some nice scenery in Rocky Mountain National Park in the background.

Check out some musical previews and a more detailed description of my thoughts about this composition on my "Music" page.

"Winter Solstice Procession" now available on iTunes and CDBaby

My latest composition, "Winter Solstice Procession" is now available for download from iTunes and CDBaby.  Learn more about the piece and hear some extended audio previews here.

Happy New Year: "Winter Solstice Procession"

This piece celebrates the Winter Solstice, the return of the Sun, a new year, and the look forward towards Spring.  Audio previews are available on my music page.

Coming soon to iTunes/Apple Music and other digitial distribution channels.