HISTORY
When I was seven, my mother sent me to see a piano teacher – an older lady who smelled of an age long gone by. Her music room was probably a closet at one time, barely able to fit the spinet piano and ourselves.
After several years of torture, she told my mother that she was wasting her time and money, and my “lessons” ended. Our piano stood stoically in our living room, untouched until my younger sister reached the age at which it would be her turn.
Later, in high school, when the Beatles came to the USA, I started listening to music and one day sat down at the spinet and started playing what I heard on the radio. I was amazed.
One day, and quite suddenly, what came from my fingertips were sounds and songs I had not heard before. Original music filled our living room, and the sensational sounds of an orchestra filled my head.
By the 1990s, technology had advanced to the point where I could create those songs and “input” the instruments that I heard – violins, oboes, horns, percussion, etc. People could hear what I heard in my mind.
To this day, I play by ear and never play the same song the same way twice.
Alone Again (14 minutes)
Dad had died at home. If left our mother alone in their small range house out in the country. I made a CD of my music, the first track being this song. She heard it every time she turned the player on. Probably heard it a hundred times and probably never got to hear the last track. One day I decided to rename the composition from Composition 4, to Alone Again.
Because she was.
Guinevere (23 minutes)
Parts of this composition was written when I was in high school; parts while creating the music in the DAW (the software used to create what you hear). In my mind, it loosely follows the story of Guinevere. It begins with a single violin playing a lyrical melody. A flute joins in – in harmony – and then the rest of the orchestra. The “introduction” lasts about four minutes. Guinevere is a compilation of different songs. For example, at about a third into it (at 8:24), the piano and accompanying orchestra create the “sound” of horses running – it signifies Guinevere and Lance Lancelot (their affair having been discovered) running from Camelot. The ending, starting at 16:33, with the piano repeating the same eight notes (previously played by the violin), depicts the restitution of Guinevere’s crime. Composed in a minor chord, it ends in contrast; with the last note of the violin (a church bell tolls in the background), slowing being blended with the rising sound of the orchestra turning it into a major chord, signifying “The End”.
When I started, I had no idea it would end up being this long. It took six months to write.
In and Out (44 seconds)
Not all my music is lengthy. A friend asked me to create a “Chronicles” DVD that told the story of his family. They were originally from south Alabama. I wanted a song to go with the introduction, so I wrote this. His parents died before we could even start, so I never made the DVD.
Music from Zula Chronicles (5 minutes)
My own creation of a DVD chronicling our family’s history needed music, so I wrote transitions, and “shorts” that I felt fit the timeframe of the late 1800s. I had fun with it. I found an “effect” that added scratches, bumps and hums – as if being played from an old record. Songs two and three have this effect as well as song five.
Hopscotch 1 and Hopscotch 2
Just some fun songs. Written long ago.
Composition 5 (7 minutes, 48 seconds)
I called them Compositions because they are not your usual 3–4-minute songs formatted in the familiar structure of two verses and a chorus. They tend to begin with a partial melody and then evolve and go in other directions (it may return to the same melodic “subject” in the end). They are usually written as I’m inputting the notes in the computer software – deciding what direction to go into as I’m typing or manning the mouse.
Composition 7 (6 minutes)
A short composition. This is one of my favorites.
Composition 10 (5 minutes, 43 seconds)
Another “short” composition.
Summer’s Day (20 minutes)
This is a compilation of several songs, which together form what I imagined was a “Summer’s Day”. It begins with thunder and the sound (from a keyboard) of a light rain. The last “song”, after a lengthy transition, begins at 14:45. It is lighthearted and has the familiar structure that we know (verses and chorus). Being 30 minutes long, I suspect it is one you’ll listen to while doing something else – driving, cleaning – or some other task.