Spidgin, a short and flashy piece for Flute and Piano

Perhaps you haven’t been introduced to Spidgin. It dates to 2007. I’ve always envisioned Spidgin as a perfect little encore piece. It’s fast, flashy and virtuosic. the flute and piano chase each other around the score, only lining up together on a few occasions over its two minute span.

It also holds an unusual position in my oevre. I was camping down in southern Utah, enjoying astronomy under dark skies with friends. I got a call telling me the piece was being played in Salt Lake City that day. I’d known nothing about it—hadn’t been to rehearsals, gotten a concert notice, nothing. And there simply wasn’t time to dash back up to SLC and take a much-needed shower. I know it was performed, since I saw a review in a local paper a day or two after. But I wasn’t there and no recording was made. I have plenty of other pieces that were performed and un-recorded. But never a premiere. So, for now, I have a nice rendering instead. Please listen to it here.

Moments: A Short Suite for Violin and Piano

Early in 2021, the Covid pandemic was raging across the world. I’d retired just a few months before and was finally able to resume serious composition. This is the first piece that came from that time and contains some of the feelings possibly shared by a great many of us.

The movements are as follows:

• You’re It - A little game of close tag. The violin and piano are never far apart, but are each playing their own bits of music. At the very end, they team up for one short jazzy line. At the time, my granddaughter—quite young — would invite me outdoors to play tag. There wasn’t that much room to play, so the matches usually dissolved into giggles.

• PriorityThread - perhaps a more familiar sort allegro, at least externally. There’s fast passage work that covers a fairly dramatic range. The instruments jump rapidly back and forth between lead and supporting roles—each taking brief priority. Perhaps they were feeling a little cooped up. I know I was.

• A Moment for Mon - We all felt loss during this period. We still do. My mother—already dealing with the encumbrances of real old age —was stricken by the Covid virus. She received excellent, skilled and loving care and appeared to be improving. Then, in just a matter of hours, she was gone. There is no way to know how her last moment felt, but perhaps it was a little like this.

I hope that I’ll be able to share a live recording of this piece some time in the next year or so. But for now, I hope this rendering gives you a sense of the piece.

You can listen to it right here.