Cello Graces

I play the same cello on this album that my father helped me buy in 1965, when I was a high school student in Salem, Oregon. I've kept it with me ever since - the only cello I've ever owned. It's been only in recent years that I've taken it up again seriously. My inspirations come mostly through improvisations with other musicians; in particular my friend, Steve Wagner, who I met in the early '60s when we both played cello in Salem. Steve co-wrote and plays acoustic guitar on several of these compositions. This album is my first. It is my privilege to be a conduit for this music: I hope that many will also hear the beauty that I have heard in the music, and have tried to convey as well as I am able. I hope I have done it some justice . . . Track Notes: Three Graces 'The last shall be first . . .' Three Graces, the first track on cello graces, was the last piece I wrote. It's melodic lines, I think, make a good introduction to what is to follow throughout the album, and the title chose itself. Dance of the Dark Moons A mood piece. Something to sink deep into the beginning of a massage with . . . Circling ever so quietly, and ever so slowly - there is no one to hear no reasons for hurry - in the shadow spaces, only spectral silhouettes to be seen. Rotating locked in the silent embrace of a dark gravity weaving the fabric of their crossings the bodies seek always the Shadow of the mother. Beyond questing beyond reason beyond reach of any eye beyond any senses the Dance of the Solitaries plays on Who is there, then, to take any meaning from their emergence into the Light? In the Evening Night This is the only piece on the album that began it's life as an actual song. I wrote it in 2001, inspired by the power nature can evoke in utter stillness. In the evening night a silent whippoorwill raises it's head and turns it's eye on me once twice and disappears. In the evening night breezes fill the spaces through the aspen trees spin themselves around waiting for the quiet of the night. In the evening night In the evening night In the evening night In the evening night rainclouds rush on high winds 'cross the dark'ning sun silver-rimmed glories strewn, in grey-shrouded stillness. And in the evening night, the undertow of night, In this evening night the silent whippoorwill, lifted up on wing, once twice and disappears. In the evening night In the evening night In the evening night In the evening night . . . Silk Silk started out on my cello. I just liked the G-major arpeggio, and played with that, seeing where it wanted to go. Steve brought in his 6-string Larrabee acoustic, and we soon had the chords and structure. This one was one of the first that I experimented with laying down more than one cello track. I liked the effect of two cellists playing in unison, then diverging and trading off the harmony line. It went a long time without a title. Finally, I asked Audy if she had a suggestion: she did, and Silk had it's name. Sea Streams Sea Streams is another of the first compositions in which I used multiple cello tracks. I wanted to lay down a dense weave of sounds playing off each other, so I back the cellos with several different voices from my Yamaha YPG-635 keyboard/synthesizer. This sample starts with a section where I've changed the time signature to 6/8 and riff with that a bit before beginning a new melodic line with the cellos, and return to the initial 4/4 time. Two Journey Bridge A meditation on two different journeys, only briefly joined by this bridge . . . on each side familiar echoes of a longing for reconnection, and a need of separation. On the Singing River Flowing forth from the bridge, a solo cello gives voice to a river and it's own journey . . . Chocolate Dreams Chocolate. 'What - Me Worry?' Rainforest Eyes closed. Warm hands and massage oil on your back. Rain on the thatched roof above. A distant melody drifts through the sultry air, into your dreaming consciousness . . . Snowfall Snowfall had the earliest beginnings of all the compositions. I sat down at my keyboard, and the opening two chords came; the