My little sister, Mary Ruth at the age of 3 years.
Mary Ruth at the age of 18 years, 1973, the year that I wrote this music for her.
NOTES: This Psalm Offering is dedicated to my sister, Mary Ruth Wagner. I wrote this in 1973, when I was a Junior at the College of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. Mary had just graduated from Our Lady of Peace, and, sadly, was the last graduating class from that all girl Catholic High School (so it was not just teenage angst that produced such a wonderful demeanor in the picture above). It was about this time in her life that Crohn’s disease, the illness which afflicted her from this time forward and would eventually end her life, began to affect her health in a major way. At the time, internal medicine was just discovering what Crohn’s disease was, and Mary was treated for other illnesses before her doctors finally made the correct diagnosis. Mary would live another 24 years, go on to become an Occupational Therapist, graduating from the College of St. Catherine, and obtaining a Graduated Degree in Education from the University of St. Thomas. Between 1973 and her death in 1997, Mary had close to 30 surgeries, all Crohn’s Disease related. The doctors were finally unable to stop her internal bleeding and she passed away on August 10, 1997. In her 42 years of life, Mary squeezed a lot of living, traveling to Europe, Australia, Tahiti, Hawaii, and, even at her sickest, camped in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. She was fortunate that two of her classmates from Our Lady of Peace, became medical doctors, and they often accompanied her on her journeys abroad. Mary has been dead for 18 1/2 years, and not a day passes without me thinking of her.
THE MUSIC: As stated above, I wrote this as a music major in the year of 1973. It is a waltz in the key of G minor. While it has a vibrant tempo and the swirly feeling of three that accompanies waltzes, there is a tinge of melancholy in the music. It is in simple three part, ABA, form. Melody A is introduced, leading into melody B. A bridge comprising elements of melody A and trills leads to a restatement of melody B, before it segues back to A, as it gets slower and softer to the end of the music. In re-editing this music in 2016, with the exception of adding dotted rhythm in a few places, I did little to change this music. It is just a little waltz in a minor key area. Little did I know at the time of composition, it would be a musical reflection of my sister’s life, that is, short, adventuresome, and filled with both a lot of pain and a lot of love.
