a collection of four songs and the variations inspired by them. these songs were written as research on ethics, values and spirituality at the andrews university leadership program. the music examines personal past, present and future experiences in relationships with the human and the divine. as noted in the reflection paper submitted to the faculty of the leadership program: “From the past, it draws on the influences of learning to lead and to love in intersecting cultures that simultaneously operationalize freedom, rigid orthodoxy and oppression. For the present, it is a reflection of our current position as a kind of high flyer whose leadership wings have been clipped to facilitate growth through intensive engagement in academic enterprise. In that grounding we are finding it necessary to re-examine and re-order our priorities, especially concerning family and other relationships connected to our leadership. Such re-examination and re-ordering are, for us, moral obligations. Looking forward, the music has an openness and flexibility that will be required for us to lead effectively in the future.”
most importantly, we are called to love. this music explores that love for people regardless of their background or ethics or values. the songs, their variations and a spontaneous shout range in form and style from traditional modern to uncategorized abstractions. it is possible to think of the songs in ways that we might reflect on or assess ethics and values – some might seem perfectly reasonable, while others strike us as positively absurd. in any case, it is our hope to always keep love, at least, in sight, if not in practice, as our guide. ultimately, this offering is more than an academic exercise – it is our prayer, that your days might be filled with harmony, joy, peace and love.
May has been a busy month. I am so very thankful to be back on the scene. Spring is a time for new beginnings and I am glad to begin again. God blessed me to release a happy blues single, “Too Bloo,” an EP, “The Field Suite,” and an album, “Improvisations.”
It’s getting late now and I hear the melody. It whispers in my musical imagination. It is the melody of bedtime, the melody of my mother singing, the melody of a time long past yet ever nearby. I am so very thankful for my mother and the sweet memories of childhood that she has given me.
Over the past several years God has carried me on a reflective journey. Much of the journey has been me, the urbanite, walking thought forests and fields, both literally and metaphorically. It has been a tremendous growth process.
Parts of the experience are captured in a suite
of four short pieces, recorded and released as an EP. The music is more
melodic and more predictably rhythmic than is typical of my
compositions. It characterizes the learning that I have experienced: be
regular, work in a rhythm that people can feel, enjoy predictability.
Like the trees of the forest and the grass of the field, this music is
quiet, melodic, rhythmic. Thank you, Lord for carrying me through!