2020 was one hell of a year.   After the loss of my father in late 2019, I aimed to find meaning for his loss through this new work, only to find a year full of calamitous events and loss.  It is equal parts tragedy, hope, and joy.  It is full of evocative melodies, charming textures, and thunderous cadences that depict the range of events of 2020 as I experienced them.  From the tenuous and fleeting American democracy, Covid-19 and aspirations for a better future, protests and violence across the country, the sudden loss of my mother, a new president and the hope his administration brings, to the loss of one of my best and dearest friends at the very end; it was a full year.

This poem digs deep and explores the rawness of emotion and the triumphs of joy and the human spirit.  It directly quotes Beethoven and Gustav Mahler, a Gregorian chant, and a Latin American lullaby "Duerme, duerme negrito" in an original context.  The lullaby was sung to me when I was very young by my mother.  The Beethoven "Ode to Joy" theme in minor key was used to symbolize democracy turned on its head and the strife of the BLM movement, racial violence, and the staggering losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  The Mahler quotation was used to symbolize the sudden and shocking loss of my mother.  It comes from the first movement of Symphony No. 10, which he never finished.  The symphony is not well known and rarely performed.  Towards the end of the movement, he created an immense chord that perfectly captures anguish, like a knife to the heart.  The trumpet on the pedal F is the knife and it was so suitable since I was once a professional trumpet player.  Lastly, the Gregorian chant Dies Irae was juxtaposed against the "Ode to Joy" to represent the deaths due to Covid-19.  

The composition begins as a sonata allegro form, but devolves after the development section in direct correlation with the transpiring events.  It made no sense to complete the form and return to the original themes and so the work evolves and ultimately aims to transcend the past and cling to hope and the triumph of the afterlife with a four minute finale with the organ, choir, soloist, and a massive orchestra.  It culminates with bells to remember my dear friend Linda who spent her life change ringing in bell towers across New England, the United Kingdom, and finally, in Michigan.

Instrumentation:
Full Mahler Orchestra, SATB chorus, Soprano soloist, piano, and organ.

2020+

Gibney Beach was my mother's favorite spot on St John USVI.  It is where I imagine her being today in the afterlife.  It is also where she brought us all together one last time before she left.  

This is a tone poem is a tribute to my late mother, Evelyn and a showing of all of my love and appreciation for her.  She was a tireless champion of equality and her love for her family was bottomless.  

One of her favorite films was Out of Africa.  We both fell in love with John Barry's film score, especially the titular anthem, "I had a Farm in Africa."  I applied my past five years studying and perfecting his luscious and sublime textures and orchestration, culminating in this composition.  The central theme is simply, a mother's love.  I spent months perfecting the orchestration and textures to best articulate my impressions of her love for me and my sister, but for all of the family and close friends.  She gave her all and so does her melody.

Later, we climb to the peaks of the island and our late boxer and  traveling companion Lucy is imagined following, then bombastically chasing a hummingbird through the lush jungles.  Hummingbirds and boxers were her favorites and the middle pays tribute to those loved ones.

As things must pass, there is a solemn, reflective section, honoring her passing, aiming to recognize, but not linger and dwell.  It is a passage of acceptance.

Finally, we return to the "a mother's love" theme where it culminates in a massive crescendo with full, rousing orchestra.  The 8 french horns are evenly split in supportive texture and bells up obbligato that punctuates through the dense tapestry of unbridled emotion which is passionately played by the upper strings with full bows.   

The poem culminates back to where it began, at the beach, with the slow, gentle and warm waters gliding onto the sandy beach with each wave.  It is truly paradise.

Gibney Beach

Based on 4 notes, this piece attempts to emulate the winter landscape of northern Michigan.  It is scored for muted strings, solo violin, harp and piano.  In winter, everything becomes very simple, quieter, and introspective.  Weeks to months can go by without seeing the sun and it can be quite somber.  This piece attempts to capture the mood, solitude, and bleakness of winter.

Many people immediately go to such voices as Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass when the word minimalist is used.  The reality is that it is much more that that.  It simply means; creating music with a minimal of musical forces.  In this case, the theme is based on four notes and everything expands from it.  The 2nd violins carry the burden of the melody for the majority of the piece, but as you will hear, it becomes so much more than that.  One might rightly ask, "isn't the melody really played by the solo violin?"  My answer to that is... it is all part of the fun and experience.

Winter

This is a 32bit studio master of the original Gibney Beach.  Much higher audio fidelity and definition.

Gibney Beach MASTER 32bit 96k Khz

This is a thematic piece for a fantasy tale broken up in four distinct parts: Fate, Of God Men, Floating Cities and Dragons, Darkness Rising, and Fellowship.  Written for my D and D group for their next set of adventures.

Yax'che

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