I've been incredibly honored to have had several of my organ compositions recently recorded by my friends Dr. Vidas Pinkevičius and Mr. James Flores.
Vidas recorded For Vidas, a fughetta in the Phrygian mode. Earlier this year Vidas recorded a video of his practicing this piece. In this new video Vidas performs this challenging little work note-perfect and in perfect concert tempo.
James has recorded two of my pieces, one of which, Pastorale, has been officially released on YouTube, and that is the one which I will share here.
James's performance is note-perfect and beautifully played, and the Hauptwerk VPO sample library he uses for this recording, that of the Armley Schulze organ of St. Bartholomew, Leeds (UK), imbues the recording with an appropriately spacious and truly lovely and peaceful atmosphere.
Pastorale began life as an improvisation I performed at church in early January. I notated the recorded performance and cleaned it up a bit. While possessing many of the traditional characteristics of a pastorale some of the features of this composition are not traditional. The meter, while compound, frequently alternates between compound duple and compound triple. Additionally, despite being notated in the key of D major the strong pull of tonic resolution is weakened by an emphasis of the subdominant and dominant degrees and their harmonies as well as how those harmonies resolve or don't resolve (the piece concludes with an open cadence, for instance).
As a composer there is nothing that can compare to the feeling one has when one hears one's works performed by others. I am grateful that Vidas and James took the time to learn and record these compositions. Thank you both, again!
As for the recital, it went well, for the most part. Each of the students was allotted the same amount of time to perform, though, naturally, not all the students used their full time allotment. I performed five shorter works of my own composition. The first two pieces I performed were piano pieces from a composition entitled Songs without Words. These are not generic "songs without words." The pieces are autobiographical and might be considered attempts to articulate emotions for which words would not/could not suffice.
The first piano piece I performed was "Once Upon a Time." This very gentle, nostalgic work was inspired by memories of the day I met a young lady whom I dated in graduate school. The way we met was like something out of a love story. We met by accident, both of us far from home. We didn't exchange contact information or stay in touch, but we both wondered if we would ever see each other again. Then, six or seven months later, we were brought back into each other's lives in a completely surprising and unexpected manner.
The second piano piece, "In Your Arms Again," was originally a stand-alone piece. I added it to Songs without Words because it was composed as a Valentine's Day gift for her and thus matched the theme of the larger work.
On the second half of the program I performed a harpsichord composition, Rhapsody on Ancient Arabic and Greek Scales, as well as two clavichord pieces, "Music Box" and "Star-Crossed." I had already posted a live recording of "Music Box" on SoundCloud, so I chose not to post this new recording. I was not happy with my performance of "Star-Crossed," so I did not post that recording, either.
However, I did post the recordings of the two piano pieces and the harpsichord Rhapsody. You can listen to these recordings here: