Music

Waltz Memory (1992)

In the fall of 1992, my mother was diagnosed with melanoma and given only a few months to live. It was a most difficult time, but I wrote this piece for her, knowing I would ultimately play it at her funeral. In her final months she dreamed a lot about dancing, so a tender waltz seemed a fitting expression of my love for her.

February’s Song (1976)

This was the first really complete piece of music that I wrote. I struggled greatly with its lyrics, but looking back I’m fairly pleased with the outcome, given that I was only 21 years old at the time. The aim was to impress a young woman who I knew through church, but I shall leave the outcome of that a mystery.

Warsaw Interlude—Feels Like Fall  (2012)

Prior to this piece, twenty years had passed since my previous efforts at writing music. I had been playing around with the introductory section for a while, but what pushed the music to its final form was a visit to see a special friend in Poland. When I first played it for another friend in Boston, he immediately said “Feels like fall,” so that subtitle was added.

Sunset Drive (1979)

I first performed this piece for a friend’s wedding, arranged for flute, cello, and harp, originally titled Meditations. I’ve arranged it differently several times over the years, playing it at memorial services for both my father and my brother. The music was not originally inspired by anything specific, but it speaks to the deep love I have for my family. So, it has been renamed Sunset Drive, which is a place where we all spent many happy hours.

Baby Blue (1981)

During the few days that I was driving back and forth to a rural hospital in South Dakota for the birth of my son, Niles, I was moved to write the lyrics and melody for this song, which was an outpouring of love for both him and his mother. It was not until years later that I created the piano accompaniment, but it is my most heartfelt composition.

Do You Remember When We … (2013)

Like some of my other pieces, this one was inspired by a beautiful relationship with someone who has touched me deeply. One of the most lovely and tender individuals I have ever met, she has a delightful way of treasuring certain memories between us, which she does by often saying “Do you remember when we …”

Someone to Love Me Again (2014)

Not included on my original CD compilation, this “extra” song came to me one summer night at a friend’s home in the Black Hills. The lyrics sprang from feelings about a particular person, but the sentiment also reflects a universal longing for love. No apologies for it sounding like it belongs in a Broadway musical from the early 1960s.

Winter Solace—When You Went Away (2018)

This is another new track added to the original six. It resulted from someone I love moving away from me, at least temporarily. When the piece was completed, though, I realized that it actually represented every loss of a loved one that I’ve experienced during my life, but perhaps most especially the death of my brother Dennis, in 2010. It is to his memory that this music is dedicated.

Where to Now? (2020)

I started this piece in the 1990s, and though I long struggled to complete it, I was finally able to find time and space to do so after retiring. Nearly all of my previous music has been inspired by someone in my life, but this work is simply my own musical wanderings on the piano. When considering a title apropos of all the uncertainty that 2020 has represented, I chose “Where to Now?”

You Can Let it Go (2021)

There is no particular backstory with this song, and the lyrics came to me somewhat spontaneously. I think they’re fairly self-explanatory, and applicable to many of us, certainly myself. It is yet another ballad, which is clearly what my songwriting veers toward most.