This playlist is dedicated to my piano teacher Mlle. Yvonne Combe and to the French School of Music in Plainfield, NJ. Mlle. Combe studied at Paris Conservatory when four famous French composers were alive and Fauré was director of the Conservatoire. She and the French School have affected many lives, and many former students performed in Carnegie Recital Hall as children (including sis and myself) and later became professional musicians, lawyers, doctors, technologists, executives, educators, etc.

Tracks were recorded and edited in Garageband using Pianoteq 5.

I didn't step into a Juilliard classroom until January 2016, so most of this playlist represents what I was able to do as a self-taught composer with ten years of piano and solfege lessons at the French School during the 1970s.

Unbridled

Part 1 of a 4 part story arc on the Sirens.

The Haunted Dreams collection is a story arc about the Sirens from Greek mythology. Peisinoe represents the loss of innocence for a young Siren who accidentally causes her first shipwreck, and finds she likes it. Aglaope is a more mature Siren, and a force of nature. Thelxiepeia's Lament tells the story of her fatal encounter with Odysseus. Pandora's Box occurs because there are Sirens inside that lure Pandora into opening the container.

Started composing Peisinoe 3/16/2012, completed 3/19/2012.

Note: I'd started on a Part 5 called Guerre des Sirenes but as of 8/2015 I've decided to shelve this effort. I don't think any more can be said of this story arc (unless a later creative spurt proves otherwise). It's hard to beat the ending to Part 4 to wrap up the series.

Part 1 Haunted Dreams: Peisinoe (2012)

Thelxiepeia's Lament is a continuation of the Greek tragedy, only this time the tables are turned. 

Thelxiepeia laments that it has been too long since a ship sailed by, until she sees a ship approaching and begins to sing.

Unfortunately for her, she doesn't realize she has encountered Odysseus. He has instructed his crew to plug their ears with beeswax, and tie him to the mast so that he could hear the Siren song without throwing himself in the water and drowning.

Thelxiepeia is crooning and it takes awhile before she pokes her head up in surprise, realizing her normally lethal charms have no impact on this crew.

Curiosity compels her to slither off her perch and circle around the ship, trying again to lure the sailors to their death. One is definitely affected - he's yelling desperately for his crew to untie him but amazingly, they refuse.

The panic is starting to rise in her throat but still she puts on her game face, until suddenly she can't, and snaps. Enraged, she crashes against the ship, to no avail. She backs up and circles again, plotting and scheming.

In increasing desperation she sings louder and more stridently. As the ship sails away from her, she runs up to a peak and unleashes one final, devastating wail of longing, hoping they will return. When she realizes she has lost, in utter despair she plunges into the ocean and drowns.

As the waters recede and calm to a mournful ending, our mysterious dreamer's haunted dreams also end (as does this trilogy), and she opens her eyes to a brand new day.

Written in early 2013.  Here is the original Youtube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF_3YzZht4E

Part 4: Thelxiepeia's Lament (2013)

Part 2 of the Haunted Dreams series: Aglaope, started 4/1/2012, original version completed 4/17/2012, ending rewritten around 5/5, originally performed 5/19/2012 (Youtube), ending rewritten Again and re-recorded 3/15/2015. Dedicated to Al Pendleton, our choir director at Governor Livingston Regional High. He gave me enough courage to chuck the training wheels (Peisinoe) and floor the accelerator.

Unlike Peisinoe, Aglaope is a mature force of nature that comes rocketing out of the water to confront her prey. She succeeds in dispatching her victims in the end, and for a brief moment transforms into a joyous kitten. But not for long - while she lets out a satisfied burp in the end, it's clear she's already thinking of her next meal...

Part 2: Aglaope (2012/2015)

Do you know the first 50 digits of pi (after the decimal)? If you're a musician I suspect after this little exercise you'll know them too. Try this: assume middle C is 1, (I made B below middle C 0), D is 2, E is 3, all the way up to 9 being D. So the melody for 3.1415... is mi do fa do sol re re (back down an octave) la sol mi sol do, etc...

Comment from my dad: This illustrates why music is such an efficient memory algorithm. Any pianist can learn this piece in a few minutes and effectively memorize Pi to 50 places, and memorize it for life by playing it once in a while. Yet, if you tried to memorize those 50 numbers, it would take a huge effort (if you ever succeed at all) and maintaining that memory for life would be nearly impossible. Ah! the magic of music.

3.
mi
1  4  1  5   9  2  6  5   3  5  
do fa do sol Re re la sol mi sol

8  9  7  9  3  2  3  8  4  6
Do Re Si Re mi re mi Do fa la

2  6  4  3  3  8  3  2  7  9
re la fa mi mi Do mi re Si Re

5   0  2  8  8  4  1  9l 7  1
sol si re Do Do fa do Re Si do

6  9  3  9  9  3  7  5   1  0
la Re mi Re Re mi Si sol do si

Part 1: 50 Slices Of Pi (2009)

Started 1/15/2016, completed 1/25/2016. Recorded 7/2016.

This is a new part 3 for the siren story arc, which is now complete with 5 parts (Thelxiepeia's Lament and Pandora's Box are now parts 4 and 5).
This breaks up the unrelenting intensity to the siren story arc, but there is still something a little "off" with this watery waltz, and that's because it is the dance of the drowning victims.

This is a "swan song" of sorts, because it's the last thing I composed as a self-taught composer before I started classes with the evening division at Juilliard for music composition.

Part 3: A Watery Waltz (2016)

Started 8/21/2016, completed 8/23/2016, recorded 8/23/2016, re-recorded 11/5/2021.

This started off as a composing “assignment” for a former piano student and it turned into Still Waters, now Part 5 of my (finally!!) complete six part siren story arc.

Part 5: Still Waters (2016)

Author: How Do I Become an Unstoppable Musician?
Former technologist.

Part 1: 50 Slices Of Pi (2009)

Eileen Sauer