Last week, I completed all the piano songs in the song cycle, Songs of the Servant Opus 17. They have been registered with the US Copyright Office, and are now digitally being distributed to all the various streaming services, e.g. TicToc, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and being available for sale on Amazon Music, and soon, on iMusic.
The music was created to accompany a Holy Week retreat written by Dick Rice, who is a retreat master, spiritual director, educator, and former Jesuit. The last time Dick and I met, he had completed the first three segments of the retreat based on the first three Servant Songs of Isaiah, and was completing work on the fourth Servant Song.
In terms of the music, I fell back on the influences of the many composers I studied as a piano student, such as JS Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Faure, Ravel, Debussy, Chopin, Johann Strauss Jr, and Sousa, to name a few. Included within the music are preludes, fugues, waltzes, mazurkas, lullabies, love ballades, marches, variations on a theme, and grand thematic music.
While the music is programmatic, meant to reflect the various themes and/or movements inherit in the Servant Songs, it is not necessary to know or study the Servant Songs to enjoy the music. The music has been composed to stand alone or accompany the texts of Isaiah.
CD Baby is distributing the digital files to all the streaming services, Amazon, iTunes etc right now. If anyone wishes to have a CD of the music, you will need to contact me. They are being created as I write this and I will get them around the end of August.
So what’s next? Borrowing an image that Stevie Nicks used in the song, “Edge of Seventeen”, with me on the cusp of seventy, I am thinking of composing a number of songs I will call “From the Threshold of Seventy.” Being on the threshold of seventy is far different in many aspects than when I was on the “Edge of Seventeen”. However, the one thing that is held in common is Ruthie.
On the edge of seventeen, I first met Ruthie and was trying to figure out how to date her. On the edge of seventeen, I no longer need to plan how to date her, but continue to bask in her presence. While I am far more crippled these days, in regard to Ruth, I am just as excited to be in her presence as I was when I was seventeen.
In closing, I will enjoy completing Songs of the Servant and look forward to how the Holy Spirit will inspire me with the next set of musical compositions.
