1) I Found Her in Ireland This is one of my earlier pieces from circa mid 70’s. It was inspired by a young woman I met at an ashram near my older brother’s home. She was distant and hard to get to know. It seemed she was concealing something quite sad. I never found out as she disappeared one day. After that I had fantasies of finding her in a far away land – like Ireland. 2) Dreams of Winter Winter is a deep, reflective, and mesmerizing time for me. This piece was written in the heat of summer, which increased the nostalgia. 3) The Music Box A child-like piece about inanimate things and story characters coming alive when a music box is played. 4) Ruth This is for my mother who is not only much loved and appreciated but is my best friend. 5) China Rain Imagine a beautiful and delicate rain falling in a rice field with workers. 6) The Heartland This is a piece about the love of place, of home – where the heart is. It is also a tribute to George Winston whose emotional yet original and bold personal style I’ve always liked. 7) The Ghost (on the bank of the river of time) The title says it all. This is the pathological extreme of nostalgia – melancholia. 8) The Exiled Heart I tried to capture the range of feelings associated with emotional rejection. This is the longest piece on the album and modulates between the keys of C minor and G minor. 9) Gene This is for my deceased father whom I’ve always loved completely. Of my four siblings I was the Daddy’s boy. His tragic life is only hinted at in this piece. 10) Surreal Fantasy My brother Jim was an abstract artist. He was very animate when talking about surrealists like Salvador Dali. This is my musical impression of surrealism. It has variations in meter and rhythm and an obsessive intensity. It is divided thematically into 3 sections. I originally named them but dropped the names from the album for brevity sake. Here they are now: 1) Behind the Soft Door; 2) Hurry Before the Moon Sets; 3) Alone on the Balcony – the Stars and You. 11) The Man in the Moon I wanted to capture the beauty, mystery and above all, imagination inspired by the moon. I also wanted to project both the contradictory feelings of fertility (imagination) and sterility (barren reality). |
