This is a vocal group that moved me enough to use on my father-in-law's eulogy at his funeral.. I thought now would be a good time to share it with people from all countries, this is not me singing, although you know, it would be a good vocal exercise at some point.
We're all losing those people from the great generation, and this is a tribute to them.

America

Here's a version I'm sure you never heard before.

Norwegian Wood  (A Beatles Cover?)

Here is a link to the youtube video for the song! https://youtu.be/sXd5B2iSWck
I looked back at the few notes I collected during this Photo Op's song development time-frame and concluded I did not have much to go on after a two year lapse.  The lyrics were not fully documented in my notebook. I must have been using lyric ideas and ad-libbing them into the song. I do not know my state of mind and wish I was better at capturing this closer to the song's conception point.

Life was still fairly locked down due to Covid, Trump was still in-office and the George Floyd protests were ongoing. The song was created without any direct outside musical influence driving the creative direction. This was me inside my studio starting from ground zero and evolving the song over the course of probably several weekends by playing around with sounds, rhythms and textures until a fuzzy shape of cohesion slowly emerged.

Listening back, I suspect, I smashed together two fairly divergent musical ideas. Bold move Dave and perhaps disastrous from a song gluing perspective. I like it anyway. Lyrics were influenced by what was going on around me and one of those things was a narcissist clutching a bible and clearing a peaceful protest with tear gas to enable his next photo op in front of the church.  A holy moment indeed. 

Lyrics
Photo Op
by David Husted

Dew drop dreams
Silly games
Buy some more stuff
Throw it away
Is it me?
Where did I go?
When we turn our backs
let them take it away.

They say it's gonna rain again
I don’t have an umbrella
They say its time to hate again
Photo ops and killing

Is it really so improbable?
State news and oligarchs selling fools
Make lies a game, and fear predominant 
Shake the base of our democracy

Photo Op

The Sanctuary

I modified my 7-string electric guitar to somekind of baritone guitar changing much thicker strings as normal. All of the strings are now wounded and the guitar is therefore tuned lower than normal.
There is only neck pickup and I played the guitar through Boss GP-10 via Behringer UMC404HD into the tabletop.
So, this was pure home "live" recording without any post repairs.

7-string jam 30092022

Written in 2019 after the bittersweet experience of dropping my daughter Ivy off at her first day of daycare.  This is a short version.  I have some rough recordings of a 10-minute version that I might break into separate songs and further develop to post in the future when I have time to tackle a bigger project.

For the music theorists: The opening theme is in A-minor, there is a somewhat jazzy middle part starting around 0:38 that is in G-mixolydian (I guess), and the last part starting around 1:00 exchanges between A-minor and C-lydian (with a lot of pedaling off the root to assert the Lydian mode).  The final chord is half-resolved (as it ends on a C power chord after a Lydian arpeggio that, due to its tritone, wants to resolve to a G triad).  

In hindsight, I think it would make more sense to transpose the song a half step down as it would have eased the jumps in the left hand to involve the black keys.  The initial version of the song had a very simple left hand, and so was fine in A-minor.  By the time I started making the left hand more elaborate, I had kind of settled on playing the song in A-minor.

The artwork is one of Ivy's watercolor paintings from the same time period when I composed the song.

Sheet music for the song is available on request.

Sonatina for Ivy

The Wizard of Oz – Ding-Dong!  The Witch is Dead
November 2022
Duration: 1:00
Part of the Playlist, The Wizard of Oz: soundcloud.com/bruce-klepper-1/sets/the-wizard-of-oz-music-for
Loosely based on Harold Arlen's music for the Wizard of Oz 
Painting by Marie-Jose Payannet
Music for Danse Etoile Ballet (www.danseetoile.org) who will be performing The Wizard of Oz January 2023 in Colorado.
For strings, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, tubular bells, celeste, and percussion

The Wizard Of Oz - Ding Dong!  The Witch Is Dead

I've always loved Leave No Man Behind by Hans Zimmer from his score for the film Black Hawk Down.  Whenever I listened to it, it was just calling out for some pipes to be added.

Its a shame that such a beautiful piece of music is associated with a war film, I'm a pacifist myself, but the idea of leaving no one behind is something that I can fully support.  

This is my little arrangement of the piece.

Written by Hans Zimmer
Performed and Arranged by Philleann

Leave No Man Behind (from "Black Hawk Down")

Leave No Man Behind (from Black Hawk Down)

Original music by: Francois Pierre Morin/FPMORINSTUDIO

G Groove 98 Mix 2023

Take Me Back

oscillate

No Other

Mysterious, Magical, Music is Wonderful!  Thanks for visiting!  Please feel free to share my music.  Enjoy!

Bruce Klepper is a Colorado based composer with thousands of listeners worldwide. Klepper studied music composition in the 1970's and received a degree in music composition and theory.  After writing music for many years and starting a tech company based in Colorado, Klepper retired in 2014 from business so he could devote myself to his true passion, composing music. Klepper's music premiered in Carnegie Hall, September 2022.  Klepper writes music in a number of different styles, including contemporary classical music, jazz, soundscapes using field recordings, ambient music, and ballet music.  Klepper has been composing music for Danse Etoile Ballet (www.danseetoile.org) since 2016. Klepper has been collaborating with Parlando School of Musical Arts (www.parlando.org) faculty Britta De Groot and Sergei Govorov for over a year now, composing and arranging new music for the dynamic piano and saxophone duo to premier around the United States. Klepper's music can be heard on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and SoundCloud. 

NOTE: there is no compression added to the tracks in order to preserve the full range of dynamics. You may want to listen with headphones or increase the volume on some tracks for the best listening experience.

The Wizard Of Oz - Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead

Bruce Klepper | Composer