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THE STORY BEHIND DESERT STARS

The ideas for these solo pieces for piano and classical guitar came to me rather naïve and unbidden, but I’ve been drawn to working on them during the past few years. As a kid, I liked to hold down the pedal on the piano and blur the harmonies—that may be the origin of the hazy resonance that threads through this music. Some brief notes follow:

Joy in Sea is an exuberant and playful romp of a piano prelude. The title is a pun on its tonal center (C) and inspirational origin: I had just moved near the ocean in Pacific Palisades, CA.

The Five Preludes for Guitar are intimate romantic pieces. The second prelude, "Daffodils," is dedicated to Karen Whalen, a next-door neighbor who confided that one night my music had turned her from suicidal thoughts —rather the opposite of what I was hearing from other neighbors!

All three Floating Preludes for Piano glow with an upper register resonance. The wispy phrases of “Clouds” unfold and float along in the extremes of high and low registers. Within the miniature world of "Clocks” is a kind of mad ticking that courses through an angry cosmos. "Elysium" is a nod to the intimate sonic worlds of French composer Maurice Ravel, but with my personal harmonic resonance.

The arches and ornaments of Arabesque are inspired by two famous classical works of the same name, one by Robert Schumann and the other by Claude Debussy.

Amazing Grace Variations was actually a composition assignment to produce stylistic variations on this famous hymn tune. In the first variation, the tune occurs upside down in the style of Erik Satie's Gymnopedies, the second variation sets the tune in an impressionist blues style, the third uses tone clusters ala Bartok, the fourth is atonal and spacey, and the fifth transforms the hymn into an Americana style chorale.

5 Finger Pieces for Piano are dedicated to a dear group of adult composition students. I tried to compose the simplest music I could imagine for them. Each piece begins with both hands in a particular "five finger" position from which they never leave!

The last piece, "Jim," is my shortest composition. Jim Bishop helped me produce a recording of my first symphony and contributed creatively with his graphic talent to my AudioMaps of the Beethoven Symphonies. How horrible that just a year later Jim's life was cut tragically short in an automobile accident. This CD is dedicated in his memory. We all miss Jim exceedingly; the world is different without him.

Desert Stars is a set of three improvisatory fantasies that I conceived during nights stargazing in Death Valley. In the first movement, harmonies pulse and bleed together through the held piano pedal. A quasi lullaby is ripped apart in the second movement, unable to hold together in the vastness of space. The last movement is a gentle and nostalgic reinterpretation of the pulsing chords from the first prelude.