Pinetops was written on a hot July afternoon in Houston. I was thinking of the Pinetops of Maine, swaying in a cool breeze while noodling an open-string warm-up exercise on the lute. The muse was truly hovering over me as my fingers seemed to find a real piece of music. The bluegrass flavor came as a surprise: the music refused to develop in any other way!

Pinetops

The tune for Overland came unexpectedly during a tour with the Baltimore Consort. Driving in a wide valley between two mountain ranges in Montana, I noticed that, although our car was speeding along at quite a clip, the mountains seemed to pass with glacial slowness. The melody - sometimes expansive and arching, and combined with a more rapid, driving accompaniment - felt inextricably linked with the scene passing before my eyes.

Overland

Cathedral Cave is an underwater cave beneath the Tasman Sea off the coast of Australia. Amazing and colorful undersea life surround the cave, making it an alluring spot for divers. A remarkable series of photographs in National Geographic (January, 1997) were the inspiration for this tone poem.

Cathedral Cave

Mt. Denali (also known as Mt. McKinley) is the highest mountain in North America. Its icy peak juts into the sky with harsh, uncompromising majesty. But the surrounding land is surprisingly gentle, green and lush. These opposites in character are the inspiration for "Denali" which seeks to capture the icy hardness, the majesty and the gentleness in a single musical vision.

Denali

From an upcoming album of Christmas music recorded with The Baltimore Consort.

In Dulci Lt

In Dir Ist Freude

These were recorded during a live streaming concert for the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Tuesday Tunes at Five series. The performance features Lute and Viola Da Gamba Duo: Renaissance and Baroque Music, Traditional Celtic and Swedish Folk Tunes, and Original Compositions.

Ronn McFarlane

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