Calm classical music. Updates every Wednesday with popular tracks in Central and South East Europe.

Classicalm

Soundtrack to The Man who Painted his House (2025)
score by Richard Uttley
(Richard Uttley, piano; Rosalind Ventris, viola)

Layers: Time & Pattern [2025]

An album to indulge thoughts about how you can grow to become your best you.

Count To Ten

Prelude

Fin du printemps

Sonatine pour piano, II. Mouvement de Menuet

Intentions is a journey through the deep love and unbreakable bond I shared with my dad. It reflects the paths we traveled together — his intentions in shaping my life, my intentions in caring for him in his declining years, and the lasting legacy he leaves behind.

This project is rich with personal meaning, infused not only with music but also with my father's voice.
Many audio samples throughout the album come from tapes and recordings he made throughout my life - drawn from voicemails, videotapes, and even a 1998 Manchester Craftsmen's Guild interview with Dwayne Dolphin. Some of these samples are obvious, while others are purposefully subtle - Easter eggs for those who listen closely. This album is filled with treasures from the Heid archives, preserving his presence, and making him an active part of this work.

The word intentions holds many meanings, each offering a profound connection to the heart of this project. My father's intentions were clear from the start: to raise me as a musician and composer and to give me the tools to create and express myself. He was the cornerstone of my musical foundation, shaping not just my skills but also my understanding of music's deeper purpose. He believed in me completely, planting seeds of passion that continue to grow.

In my father's later years, as his health declined, my focus shifted to caring for him with the same love and devotion he had always shown me. Those years taught me a hard but valuable truth: even the purest intentions don't always lead to the outcomes we wish for.

Heid Studios was his dream, a place where his intentions extended far beyond our family, inspiring creativity in others. That dream was itself a continuation of a legacy passed down from his father, George H. Heid, who founded the first recording studio in Pittsburgh - a studio that captured the brilliance of Pittsburgh jazz legends like Billy Strayhorn and Erroll Garner. This album's cover artwork, by Michael Crampton, depicts the house and recording studio my father and I built together over the course of my entire lifetime - our home and creative sanctuary, immortalized as part of this musical journey.

This album is my way of speaking to my dad again.
It's a tribute to his bravery, his sacrifices, and the bond we shared as kindred spirits — two lives deeply intertwined through love and music. Intentions is the story of our journey together, the foundation of his legacy, and the future that lives on in me.

Not a day passes that I don't think of my dad, my heart heavy with both love and loss. He often reflected on memories with his own father and their great relationship, wistfully asking, "Were they only dreams?" — a question that now echoes in my own memories of him. When I was a child, whenever we were apart, he would soothe me with the comforting words, "See you in dreamland."

Thank you, Dad, for your wisdom, your unwavering belief in me, your endless love, and the countless memories and adventures we shared together. Until we meet again - see you in dreamland.

- George Heid III 

I Sing The Body Electric

03 Yellow Einstein

Eternal Ascent for Reed Quintet

Eternal Ascent portrays the Greek myth of Sisyphus, who was punished by the Gods and sentenced to roll a large boulder up a hill every day, only for it to fall back down when it neared the top.

This constant and arduous task symbolizes the more frustrating side of learning to play an instrument, the stretches of time where no progress is being made or even periods of regression. The music reflects this anguish through its dark and somber tone, with moments of ascending hope anticlimactically returning to the same introductory material, starting this relentless journey over once more.

Though this myth can be a daunting one, we can all be hopeful that we have the ability to push the metaphorical boulder to the top of the mountain with enough work and persistence.


Eternal Ascent

Melody for Gerson

GERSON OP 1 NO. 24

Recorded at Zion Community Commons, August 21, 2025

Laura Harada, violin
Aaron Kerr, cello
Rebecca Hass, piano

About “Ad Parnassum” (Ad Parnassum, 1932)
The dark outline of a pyramid-shaped mountain glows beneath a warm orange sun while an open archway invites the viewer to take the first step on their journey towards enlightenment. Inspired by the pyramids and temples of Egypt, Paul Klee’s pointillistic masterpiece from 1932 is built from contrasting blocks of color built up brick by brick in a style that he called “divisionism.” In the same way, the music takes the form of a rondeau as repeated musical progressions are developed through textural variations. In Greek mythology, Mount Parnassus is associated with Orpheus and the home of the nine muses and “a step towards Parnassus” (gradus ad Parnassum) came to define the gradual process of pursuing mastery in scholarship or the arts through diligent, repeated practice. The climb towards any summit begins with a single step and although that journey can be defined as a series of steps towards a goal, there is no guarantee that the path will be straightforward. The path may be winding, or may double back on itself, or seem to disappear altogether – it is built from small victories, epiphanies, frustrations and defeats – and by the end you have come full circle, stepping through the door towards Parnassus once again, both an exit and an entrance.

Ad Parnassum (1932) - No. 144.1 from Paul Klee : Painted Songs

Constellations

℗ 2012 Tom Brier

Released on: 2012-11-16

Meditation - Tom Brier

Sunlight And Shadow - Tom Brier

Gerson in Minor Key

Gerson in Minor Key No 6

A piano solo featuring a theme based on the motif 6–7–8–3.

6783 Motif Piano Solo

My solo piano arrangement of Hark The Herald Angels Sing

Meditation - Tom Brier

Dave-bbx

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