The sixth string quartet is based on palindromic rounds. I like the way they wash back and forth, interlocking.

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“Starlight” was an elaborate “chamber extravaganza,” which I put together back in San Francisco in 1980.  I had been creating performance pieces by assembling found materials linked in associative structures; this was the most elaborate manifestation.  It used music, props, slides of drawings, and dialogues; all circling around the twin mystics Thomas and Henry Vaughan.  […]

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I think this was back in 1972.  At any rate, I was still in high school when I wrote string and flute arrangements for this local 45.  Jan Ince sang two of her songs, and Caltrick Simone (whose real name I’ve forgotten) produced.  I also played ‘cello on it.  An internet search reveals that copies […]

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I’ve often given talks on the visionary painter and pulp writer, Richard Shaver.  The one I did at Brooklyn’s “Four Walls” gallery was the most elaborate.  Mike Ballou made wall sconces using Shaver’s rock photos; we hung a tree with Shaver publications; and I spoke within a charming fake cave.

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There were many variety/performance/music series in downtown Manhattan in the ’90s.  This one was hosted by that excellent cartoonist, R. Sikoryak.  I sang my songs, with Carol Benner playing obbligati on the viola; we were bracketed with that excellent writer, David Sedaris.

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The second string quartet consists of four rounds: two that were originally vocal, and two that weren’t. Bass lines and other niceties are sometimes added.

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A clangorous sort of chorale, from 1992.

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A piano reduction of a score I wrote for a dance by Naomi Gruen, long ago.

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I’m always interested in music written by writers.  And so, when I learned that Robert Louis Stevenson had written music for flageolet, I had to seek it out.  And I had to harmonize it.

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