Music has always been a part of my life so I have managed to learn
how to play a few instruments although I have never excelled in any except
maybe church bells (See "
A Standing Ovation
").
Early piano lessons taught me how to read and write music and it turned out
that I could remember harmonies and chord variations of tunes I listened to
which meant I could play by ear.
It was not until quite late in life that I even considered writing my
own music but there came a time when my wife was making web pages to showcase
her own writings and needed musical accompaniment for them. In those days the
music had to be in midi format and there were tons of copyright issues so I
found a music program capable of playing what I wrote and saving the tunes in
midi format. My wife has since taken down that site which was mostly on a Fairy
theme but while I was writing the music I allowed other web masters to use my
midis and got quite a following from it.
For a time I even sold CDs of my music online and, although CDs have
gone the way of the dodo bird and the pterodactyl, the music still exists and
the virtual CDs can be viewed, and listened to,
here
.
Here is a complete alphabetical list of all the tunes I have written and/or sequenced.
Naturally I have my own favourites for different reasons
-
Angels of God
Simply because it was the first tune I wrote.
-
Trillium
Written for guitar (which I play) and violins (which I never
mastered).
-
Pinacolada
In our younger years my wife and I taught ballroom dancing so naturally the
latin rhythms hold a special place in our hearts.
Add to that the intricacies of writing in the various drums was a pleasant
challenge.
-
Lost Lagoon
Lost Lagoon is a part of Stanley Park in Vancouver and is where I proposed to
my wife
I was going for a nostalgic feeling to the music on this one.
-
Monarch of the Glen
Inspired by the painting of the same name by one of my favourite
artists Sir Edwin Henry Landseer.
-
Beat of the Wings
My first attempt at including drum accompaniment.
-
Caribbean Days
Recalling the sounds of a special vacation
-
Sunrise on the Ocean
My dad turned me on to this kind of music in my teens and I must say that I
still enjoy it.
I wrote it especially for my cd "Call of the Sea"
-
Ocean Moon
Another from "Call of the Sea"
-
First Love
Instrumentally speaking my first love has to be the piano. This piece was
inspired by one of my favourite composers, Ludwig Van Beethoven.
-
A Christmas Thought
I did write a couple of Christmas tunes but this was the only tune I ever
included lyrics. I never got around to having someone sing it and my music
program will only duplicate human voice without words. I did put it in a
Christmas card one year however.
Christmas 2003
While I did not compose this next piece which obviously belongs to
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky it was probably the most challenging piece I have
sequenced to date. It includes ten instruments and I am sure I missed a few
(sorry Tchaikovsky).
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