From Three Stories and Ten Poems, some arrangements:
1. Corona (Mitraigliatrice), by Ernest Hemingway
2. Captives, by Ernest Hemingway
3. Old Soldiers Never Do Die Well (Champs D’Honneur), by Ernest Hemingway
4. Chapter Heading, by Ernest Hemingway
NB: Original titles in parenthesis.
1. “War Is Kind,” by Stephen Crane (arrangement)
2. Caesar’s Lament (original)
Set to the tune of Greensleeves, “The Old Year Now Away Is Fled” dates to as early as 1642. It was a common practice, then, to set new lyrics to familiar melodies, and Greensleeves, which dates to the 1500s, was a popular melody. The version I present retains the chord structure of the tune, but the melody is new.
It was recorded using GarageBand and its built-in instruments.
Here’s another version:
Most people think of Greensleeves as a Christmas carol, but originally it was a romance: “Alas, my love, you do me wrong, to cast me off discourteously.” (See my version at the bottom of the post.) In 1865, William Chatterton Dix wrote a poem called “The Manger Throne,” and shortly after its publication, someone set three stanzas of the poem to the tune of Greensleeves. “What Child Is This?” remains a popular carol to this day.
“The Old Year Now Away Is Fled” is both religious and festive. Some lines relate the story of Christ, others champion the right of friends to imbibe “good liquor.”
I performed an original song, inspired by the story of the prodigal son, after a sermon I preached on June 21, 2015. My text was Luke 15:1-32.
1. Highways Heading Home
The sermon and song were recorded, but the mix is fairly raw.
I debuted three new works at The Ugly Mug in Soquel, California, arrangements of poems that I have been working on lately.
1. A Dream Within a Dream, by Edgar Allen Poe
2. L’Envoi, by Edwin Arlington Robison
3. The Helping Hand, by Edgar Lee Masters
My first instrument was the violin, which I took up in the 5th grade. My first performance was that same year. I played through middle and high school, but only casually afterwards.
If you played at the Sixth Frederick All-County Orchestra in 1981, please email. You can download the mp3 here.
Photos:
