These seven songs were written in 1999. I was particularly interested in setting metered verse with changing meters, and in a rich two-part texture. Many of them were, inevitably, concerned with loss, given the recent death of my father, and my mother’s declining health (she died shortly afterward). The seven songs are: “Calico Pie” by […]

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In the early ’80s, Bill Irwin, Michael O’Connor and I sometimes worked together under the name “Murdoch.” I don’t remember where the name came from; I think Bill may have dreamed it. In 1981, Bill and I played a run at the Mickery theater in Amsterdam under that name. The photos were by Bob van […]

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“We All Will Do the Hukilau in Heaven” was a bit of lyrical theology, envisioning heaven as a vacation in Hawaii. It was part of a show by Doug and Barb Roesch, American Excess, examining televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. It appeared at NYC’s Middle Collegiate Church in 1986. Barb Roesch did the choreography; […]

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This song was suggested by a photo of a two-headed kitten that appeared in the Fortean Times. You can find it in The Doug Skinner Songbook and on the album That Regrettable Weekend. Here’s how it begins.

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A setting of my own abridged translation of a profoundly disturbing passage in the Fioretti di San Francesco, in which Saint Francis opines that true happiness is being beaten mercilessly with a heavy knotted stick while contemplating Christ’s suffering.

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This photocopied dossier collects 49 pages of my keyboard music. Let me know if you’d like one. The pieces are: Life’s Little Sorrows Mozart at the Cannery Works Waltz Under the Weather Fort in Solrésol Chuff The Scenic Route Stevenson at the Flageolet Lull Lorem Ipsum Dolor Bach Had a Bad Headache The Passing Clouds […]

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This lively fanfare was written for two of my favorite instruments. They don’t get to play together that often. Here’s the opening salvo.

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I have a nice old-fashioned monochord that I often use to teach music theory. Contemplation of the relationship between number and pitch led me to write this little piece, based on the primes between 1 and 100. It’s delightfully grating.

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A love song to the viola, lamenting that the poor instrument is usually relegated to offbeats, set to viola offbeats. The viola does play a solo at the end, though.

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This bustling prelude is taken from the music I wrote for Bill Irwin’s show The Courtroom, back in 1985. And it starts out like this.

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