THE STORY BEHIND THE PIECES ON A NEW KIND OF AIR

To The Living-My jumping off point for this piece was the aira from the goldburg variations. This is my favorite of the goldburg pieces and also the simplest. What I borrowed from it is the way the left hand out lines the chords very slowly one note at a time. For me, to the living is about celebrating and appreciating life even when its hard. It almost feels like traveling in the future 100 years and every one you know is gone and your watching home videos, and all you can think is about how special your life was and how blind you were to its specialness.

A New Kind Of Air-One of the things I like about this piece is the process the melody goes though in constructing it self. It starts with an extremely simple idea and then travels though multiple cycles of of embellishment till the real melody has finally been constructed. This is a very Steve Reich idea, but approached from a different angle (i.e. not using his beats for rest thing). Later in the work there is a section that is an ambient wash of notes. I realized trying to notate something like this is just silly. Its super easy to play but hard to notate, so I didn’t. The piece concludes with a slow restatement of the theme.

The Hope Garden-The name for this piece came from an experience I had in the summer of 2023. Me and my wife were making a new flower bed in our back yard. Were were making it in the shady part of our yard where it would be easier for my wife to maintain it even in the middle of health issues. Even though we had yet to put a single plant in the bed, the feeling of joy and potential over our empty flower bed was palpable. The ending theme was a musical idea that kept popping up as I worked on different pieces and every time I would reject it, but it finally found a home at the end this one.

A Strange Liberty-I wanted this piece to feel like a hymn. The title is taken from a poem I wrote (The companion poetry book to a new kind of air is due out in 2025). Here is an excerpt from that poem

I want to give you the knowledge

Of your weakness

Finally knowing you can’t  control it

Which frees us all

Which sets us free

With a strange liberty

As we cut the sails

After you have done all

You know to do

And the waves keep coming

And the months and months

Have worn you down

Till you feel like you are

Turning into sand

and you look around

Like the rock that haas been ignorant

Of the beach its on 

And you say

What a beautiful place I’ve been set in

What a beautiful thing I will become

The Longest Night Of The Year- This is an obvious reference to the winter solstice. Which is a symbol of hope and things turning around, even though that particular night is the longest. Musically this piece has no sense of development but just keeps recycling the same idea with slight (almost imperceptible variations). This piece goes along with this poem.

It’s like savoring the light

Of a tiny candle

In the darkness

Of the winter solstice

And the light being far

Or the fear of light leaving

Impowers your candle

Till it fills the ignored spaces inside

And you say

“I have never seen such a lovely

Dancing flower in all my life”