I used the Motif XS8 to write this piece. The piano, voiced with long-decay 4th's and 5th's in a string/vocal like sample, provided darkness and light, hope and despair. While mostly in major chord progressions, the minor piano lead line into the interlude was necessary to balance the pathos. 
I live in the country, more isolated than the city where I used to live, but don't let the magnificent colors, wide open spaces, and breathable air fool you. Towns are surrounded by country tenement, Main Streets are a pall. The photograph you see is of the Mighty Mackinaw bridge, connecting the lower part of the state of Michigan to it's upper peninsula. I've always thought of bridges as connectors. In our COVID saturated country today, this bridge disappears into the fog of the Mackinaw Straits. This Way Now is the way it is. For now.

This Way Now

During this extended time of COVID we find ways to quiet our mind, settle our heart, leave the day behind. Like snow falling in the woods, a gentle hiss as flakes land on pines, trickle down through branches, set underfoot. We do what we can. Take a moment to breathe deep the solace of the night.

NightWalk

I wrote "Reverence" several years ago to commemorate the aftermath of a fire that gutted the First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Given our current tragic loss and a longing for what was, the piece has just as much significance for me today. Our lives have been ravaged by a viral fire, one that continues to roar out of control just as the vaccines are rolling out. I dedicate this piano solo to dear friends who battle this fire on the front lines of health care every single day. And to the many unsung heroes we will never know.

Reverence

Release. Allow escape from confinement; set free. To quote Indian novelist Arundhati Roy in her article "The Pandemic is a Portal": 
"Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew...We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it." (Financial Times)
Roy's words inspired my piano solo, "Release"

Release

Author, musician, still on the right side of the dirt

Ellen Bennett