A snippet for traveling down a highway on a hot July day. Start the engine, ease onto the road, shift to high gear, and cruise off into the distance. 
"Finish the track"? is what everyone composing music says. This has been in the works for more than a year. Got stuck halfway through, gave up, and only came back to it a year later. Talk about creative block.

Hot July Road

This is the sound track for a documentary short film around the theme of "center". It includes an eclectic mix of instruments and styles, from Tanzanian zeze (a kind of dulcimer), Ghanaian koro (a kind of harp) and flute, to Tanzanian ohlongo drum and Gamelan percussion, to traditional western instruments, such as hammered dulcimer, glockenspiel, and strings. It features a local potter, Liz Goldenberg, who describes how being a potter has centered her life and art. The documentary can be viewed here:
https://vimeo.com/macrotermiteman/earthairfirewater?share=copy

Earth Water Fire Air (score)

I recently heard a very fine kalimba artist, Arthur Flowers, who reminded me how beautiful an instrument the kalimba is. The plucked notes are liquid, which makes the sound of the kalimba evocative of the hypnotic sound of rain. This updated version of Kalimba paints the sound of a passing rainshower on a summer's day. It is a series of phrases, mixing the liquid notes of the kalimba with the richer tones of an African dulcimer, with a gentle percussion that evokes water dripping from trees, and the gentle breezes that accompany a summer shower. The photograph is the water-sculpted Antelope Canyon, near Page, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation.

A passing shower (kalimba)

A passing shower (Kalimba)

Don't ask me what foogy means.  A little blend of Caribbean and South African  Township music. Ensemble of guitar, electric bass, marimba, alto sax, trumpet and trombone. I've entered this in the 2019 Cortland Community Arts Challenge, and is accompanied by a video montage of my photographs of African birds. You can see the video here: https://vimeo.com/284015705. 
As always, listen with speakers or headphones with a good bass range.

Foogy

This is an updated version of an older composition, Sixes and Sevens, now enriched with instrument solos, richer percussion and a bass line. The title is prompted by a clownfish I saw at the Scripps Aquarium a couple of years ago ...

I Found Nemo (Sixes And Sevens)

Imagine you are sitting on a porch overlooking the beautiful Namib desert, at sunset. It is hot and languid, and you have a gin and tonic in your hand. As the sun sets, the sky and colors become richer and more complex, culminating in the burst of color at the moment the sun sets, followed by the slow descent of twilight to darkness. At least that's what it feels like to me. 
This is an updated version of an earlier track, titled Namib (Desert) Sunset. It is the musical acccompaniment to a music video submitted to the 2021 Community Arts Challenge, under the theme Change. It still is a duet between piano and viol, but I've tried to make it lighter, richer and less plodding.

Namib (desert) sunset

Namib (Desert) Sunset

A decrepit church in the middle of the Namib desert has a dark secret: a stained glass window haunted by spirits. On starry nights, these emerge to dance around the church, bending reality, space, and time to a twisted danse macabre of oboe, clarinet and piano. 
(new mix 25 January 2024)
This is the musical composition for my entry for the 2023 Cortland Community Arts Challenge, accompanied by an animated video. It won first prize for original musical composition. You can see the video here: https://vimeo.com/778776822

Bent. An oboe Dream)

Imagine some friends gathered on a lazy afternoon, getting together for a little jam session. A chord progression is introduced. Then every one takes off with a jazzy riff, everyone coming in for solos and spontaneous duos here and there.

A lazy afternoon

I'm a retired professor of biology that has taken up music composition as a hobby. Check out my tracks and playlist.

macrotermiteman

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