When I was about fourteen years old, the piano preludes of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) changed my life. Before then, the piano music my teacher gave me was mostly from the Classical Period with some from the Romantic Period. Czerny and Hanon were the backbone of the technique she taught.
I wrote the anthem God Is There in the summer of 2024. One of the hardest things about writing anthems is finding a suitable text. It is more expedient to use public domain material so as not to worry about...
. . . the professor said, “you should keep composing.” His words kept echoing in my mind. Just who was this person? What did he know? Why should his words change my life?
A short piano piece evoking the solitude of drifting on a moonlit lake.
Faded photographs, a favorite teddy bear, toys, and dolls evoke memories of childhood. Along with these, you have recollections of vacations, holidays, and family gatherings.
I wrote this anthem in January of 2018. The text by Frederick William Faber is one of mercy, inclusion, and love. This image he uses of God’s mercy being like the wideness of the sea is the seminal idea for the anthem. And, it is also the foundation for the tone painting throughout the anthem.
I wrote “. . . As the mist resembles the rain” for Flute and Piano in 2002 for friend and flutist, Jane Weigel. The piece is a lyrical work for flute and piano inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Day Is Done” (1844).
After November of 2006 I worked steadily on writing songs. It was frustrating as well as fulfilling. I was learning a lot, but still had a long way to go. Just before starting songwriting, I had spent my time composing introits and benedictions for choir.
After I made my first Christmas CD in 2013, I was eager to make another in 2015. At this point, I was working a full-time office job, came home tired every evening, and did not know if my sophomore effort could be as good as the first.
As a young person I could not wait until Thanksgiving arrived each year. That signaled the day I would pull out all my Christmas carol books and play through them every day. I would arrange the music into a program and imagine I was performing in some great Christmas concert.
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