Happy autumn to all you dwellers of the northern hemisphere! My song Autumn Waltz is a simple, folksy tune that I wrote for a Clothesline Project benefit concert. The inspiration for the song came from another waltz, Ashokan Farewell by composer and fiddler Jay Ungar, which is heard throughout the Ken Burns documentary "The Civil War". 

Recently I visited the studio of my friend Michael Stricklin, an artist who paints in the style of abstract expressionism. I feel that there is a lot of music in Mike's work and was struck by his painting "Autumn Ambience" shown above. Music is also full of colors and shapes, much like this painting. I think it makes a wonderful pairing to listen to Autumn Waltz while viewing Mike's Autumn Ambience. Try it for yourself and see if you agree!

The track is featured on my album Summer Mood. On this one I am playing flute and piano.

Sheet music for this composition is available at the Original Music page. Streaming on all platforms including YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music.

Click the image below to listen to the song on YouTube. 
​Free to listen, no account or subscription required.

Mid-Cape Maverick is a song inspired by a car. In 1981 my wife Lisa accepted a job offer at Nauset Regional High School on Cape Cod, about 2-1/2 hours from where we were living in Rhode Island. I was finishing my last year of graduate school at the University of Rhode Island, so we continued to maintain our apartment there and I commuted once or twice weekly between Rhode Island and the Cape. I spent many hours driving the Cape's main east-west highway, Route 6, also known as the "Mid-Cape Highway". My car at the time? A 16-year-old 1965 red Ford Maverick. The one in the photo is new. Mine was similar in that it had the same shape. But mine featured very faded paint and plastic compound that filled rusted out sections. The car had a steering column shift lever that refused to stay in park while the engine idled, so we always had to be watchful of its tendency to pop suddenly into reverse and begin backing up on its own. But it held steady for the long drive during our first year on Cape Cod. That car was a maverick indeed! This is a driving song and became a part of my mind's soundtrack as I commuted back and forth to the Cape.

The track is featured on my album Summer Mood. In this jazz combo arrangement I'm playing flute and soprano saxophone. There is also an arrangement for full jazz ensemble that was first written for and performed by the University of Rhode Island Jazz Ensemble.

Sheet music information for this composition is available at the Original Music page. Streaming on all platforms including YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music.

Click the image below to listen to the song on YouTube. 
​Free to listen, no account or subscription required.

My wife Lisa and I have enjoyed many visits to the town of Akumal on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. For us it's a perfect blend of mellow mixed with snorkeling and relaxation. On one particular evening we danced under the full moon while a few yards away waves lapped the shore. A lovely memory and one of many that inspired this song. Yucatán Moon is a collaboration with Lisa contributing to both the lyrics and recording production. On this one I'm singing and playing soprano saxophone and cowbell ("more cowbell!"). This song is featured on my album Pop Songs, Poetry & Other Flights of Fancy. 

​Sheet music for this composition is available at the Original Music page. Streaming on all platforms including YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music.

Click the image below to listen to the song on YouTube. 
​Free to listen, no account or subscription required.

I composed the jazz-rock song “Gregorio” for musician Greg Greenway. In the 1990s, when I was teaching at Nauset Regional High School on Cape Cod, I joined Greg and fellow faculty member and percussionist Lisa Brown to present annual concerts to benefit the Clothesline Project, an organization that addresses issues of domestic violence in our communities. It's a heavy topic, but we sought to keep the fund-raising concerts upbeat and fun. To that end I invented an alter-ego for Greg who I named "Gregorio via Verdi". The real Greg Greenway is a folk-rock singer-songwriter-guitarist-pianist. His alter-ego, Gregorio via Verdi, is a jazz pianist from Rome, Maine which we referred to as the "Home of the Caesar Salad". For Gregorio's first concert appearance Greg dressed in sunglasses, beret and scarf. To our surprise it took many of his longtime fans some time to figure out who he really was! I composed this song for Greg to play on piano during one of the concerts. Some time later I had the great pleasure of recording this song with the Cape Cod Jazz Quintet: Steve Ahern (trumpet), Bruce Abbott (alto sax), Fred Boyle (piano), Ron Ormsby (bass) & Bart Weisman (drums). The track is featured on my album Summer Mood.

Sheet music for this composition is available at the Original Music page. Streaming on all platforms including YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music.

Some inspiration from a book recently brought to my attention by one of my adult students. Share your thoughts!

"Some people think it is too late to learn to play an instrument because they feel they will never 'get good' at it. But that is based on the misconception that art is primarily about accomplishing something and gaining skill. Actually, art is about exploring and creating. For that, it's never too late. 

"Creating is not performing, but exploring. To create is to enjoy the adventure within this moment. It is not being concerned with how far we have traveled or how much we have accomplished, but being willing to take a new path, embrace challenges, and become a beginner all over again. As the years go by, we become more knowledgeable and skillful and impressive, but a creative person looks at the challenges ahead rather than the accomplishments behind, and is forever curious about what can be discovered in the moment unfolding itself. What we can discover in music (and ourselves) is infinite. To those who enjoy creating music, that's something quite wonderful. After all, when we are intensely enjoying a movie or book, don't we wish it would never end?"

(From "Pattern Play, Book 1" by Akiko & Forrest Kinney, published by The Frederick Harris Music Co., Limited)

One of the things I love about springtime is the opportunity to keep our windows open. I love being able to hear the sounds from outside filling the interior of our home. Voices of people talking as they walk the Rail Trail path behind our house; birds singing myriad songs; bees working in the new blossoms; even traffic passing on the street below. In the winter I feel sound-starved. The quiet of the closed-up winter has ended and the world of sound is back!

Some years ago my friend and fellow musician David Key introduced me to a book by composer-pianist-philosopher W.A Mathieu called "The Listening Book: Discovering Your Own Music". It's a book of reflections and exercises that seeks to expand our awareness and sensitivity to the sounds in our world (including music). 

When I was teaching high school music theory I used one chapter in particular as an assignment each year. That chapter is titled "Symphonies of Place". For Mathieu a "Symphony of Place" is "created" as one listens deeply and writes down every sound that can be heard. As examples he includes two "symphonies of place" in the chapter, one at his home and one in downtown Santa Rosa, California. While many of us would hear 10 sounds Mathieu, through attentiveness, notes 20-30. 

Here is the exercise from his book. Give it a whirl! Then try the same as you listen to some music.

Symphonies of Place
"Get a pencil and paper. Become aware of all the sounds you are hearing now, this moment, as you read. Make a list of them. Close your eyes from time to time. Swivel your head slightly to change the mix. Make a sweep from nearby sounds to distant sounds. Fall into the distance. Become transparent. Now fall into the nearness. Make a sweep from the highest sounds to the lowest ones. Disappear into the stratosphere, reappear underground. If your space is quiet enough you will hear your own internal sounds: breathing, maybe your blood in your ears. Or the subtle sounds of cloth against cloth, skin against skin. Count everything; write everything down. Use words economically. Later, if you like, you can set the scene and go into detail.
Now make your sweeps into scans so rapid that you have the illusion of hearing everything at once. Now close your eyes and hear everything at once. Now cup your hands behind your ears. Technicolor!
This is the sound of your now, your Symphony of Place."

(From "The Listening Book" by W.A. Mathieu, published by Shambhala Press, 1991)

One of my favorite days when I'm teaching a music theory class is when I ask my students to define "music". How do we pare music down to its essence and find a common definition that we can agree upon and that will apply to any style? What a challenge! 
First it is usually agreed that music is sound. But how does it differ from noise or random sounds? We then usually agree that music is sound that is intentionally organized using various elements. The most apparent of those elements are melody, harmony and rhythm. A more elusive element to discern is form, and it is present in all music.
Music occurs in time, so the beginning and ending moments provide the overall framework. At the very least the music will have a beginning and an end. Some music is what we call "through-composed" without having sections that repeat. It simply will begin at one moment in time, and end at another.  
But most music that we hear consists of sections that repeat mixed with sections of contrast. It's common to label each section with a letter to indicate the form. Some common forms are: ABA, AABA, ABACADA (etc.), AB (or verse-chorus). And there can be smaller forms within the overall form. And within the forms and subforms are melodies, harmonies and rhythms that repeat and vary, further adding structure to the music. 
Melody, harmony, rhythm and form. As you listen to music try to become aware of and identify its formal structure. What are the sections that repeat? What are the sections that are varied? You'll find it in music from pop songs to symphonies. 
Happy listening!

A note from artist Helen Miranda Wilson: "You know that tune 'Honeysuckle Rose'? It came on the radio while I was making that painting. Plus the honeysuckle was blooming in the back yard. Its scent was wafting through the window. Repetition and variation: it's all I do, for years now. It's what breathing is."