This year's Christmas recording: my own instrumental adaptation of the 12th-century Aquitanian versus "Natus Est Rex" ("The King Is Born").  The accompanying photo depicts the instruments I used for this recording (not including 13 tracks of my own voice, for the vocal drone): lap harp, wind chimes, salaw, brass bell, bowed Appalachian dulcimer, and finger cymbals.

Natus Est Rex

This is the second movement of the two-movement "Color Wheels," music composed for the exhibit "The Artist Shelf," featuring still-life and landscape paintings by Irish artist Richard Hearns.  Whereas the first movement, "Acceleration," represents the inspiration and execution of art, the second represents the viewing of and absorption in the finished product -- becoming enchanted with or "lost in" it.

Color Wheels - Secondary: Drift

Performed in recital 30 May, 2015, at St. Malachy's - The Actors' Chapel, New York, NY.  Accompanied by Brian Holman.

Reynaldo Hahn: Fleur Fanée

Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues

Unfinished Jump (Opus 13 from the Chamber Blues Suite)

Koulangatta

Here's a mash-up of two Christmas songs that depict Santa arriving at a tropical-island destination via canoe: "Christmas Island" and "Here Comes Santa in a Red Canoe."

Christmas Island/Here Comes Santa in a Red Canoe

Absolutely The Best: Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee

Blues For Gamblers

I am a classically trained professional singer who enjoys composing and songwriting.  

Natus Est Rex

John Des Marais

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