I usually write my own material in these blogs, but recently Linda Landreth Phelps wrote an article about my life and music for the magazine Williamsburg Next Door Neighbors, and I think she did an admirable job, so... here's her article!
Do you know what the letters ‘SATB’ mean?
That’s the shorthand for the common choir and hymnal arrangements in which there are four parts for the four ranges: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.
...When in 1995 I composed ‘Sky Through the Pines’ (originally ‘Such a Gift’) I envisioned it as a sung song with guitar or as an instrumental ensemble piece with guitar, hammered dulcimer, flute, and other instruments; both versions were recorded, in 1996 and then 2002, and the latter was released on the album Sycamore Rapids. But I never imagined playing it as a solo --- and was frustrated that I couldn’t play it again except on a CD player!
In 2000 I began developing my new stylized method of separated-hand solo hammered dulcimer playing, and at first limited it to quite simple tunes to keep it manageable. Then the occasion came, for a couple of weddings, to arrange Beatles pop ballads in such a manner. Many of us agree, I think, that some of the finest of the pop ballads are by those guys, and they have a sort of pure simplicity that ought to go well with my separated-hand technique!
...
In music the French word ‘motif’ simply means a group of notes that you use to start a musical composition and to refer to throughout the composition for unity. That’s all!
Maybe the most famous example of a motif is the set of theme notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony: ‘Di-di-di-dah’ (used in the Second World War as Morse Code for ‘V’ for victory) --- and if you listen to that matchless symphony you can hear Beethoven developing an entire movement --- with references throughout the rest of the whole work --- from that simple set of three notes, G-G-G-Eb (in the key of C minor).
...
No, not all animals like our music! I certainly remember when I was a teenager practicing flute our collie scratched and whined at the door --- then again, perhaps I was playing at her too much!
But last evening I got word from Lisa in California, yet another parrot owner insisting that our recordings were a favorite for the bird. (This is the third instance I know of.)
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