A round on a bit of verse by Ambrose Bierce.

Bill Irwin, Michael O’Connor and I performed The Regard of Flight frequently between 1980 and 2003.  It seemed, at times, that we would spend the rest of our lives doing it.  Its last run at the Signature Theater in NYC, however, laid it peacefully to rest.  I wrote this verse in 1991, as we prepared to open it in La Jolla.

Again, I don’t know how old I was when I composed this series of descriptive pieces.  Nor do I remember why I used only two pitches.  (Those stray Fs in the first piece are obviously an error.)  I do remember, however, that I insisted my father play them, because I wanted to hear them played by someone else.

This is the beginning of a twelve page story.  Will they ever get there?

The sixth issue of Black Scat Review is now out; and it contains my translation of “The Unicolorist” by Jules Moy, a monologue about monochromatic painting from 1897.  I also contributed an introduction about Moy, and about the history of monochromatic painting in the Belle Époque.  It also contains delightful work by Nin Andrews, Ivan de Monbrison, Emily June Brink, Michelle Gray, Joanna C. Valente, Judson Hamilton, Sayuri Yamada, Adam Miller, Opal Louis Nations, and an interview with Yuriy Tarnawsky by Erckhard Gerdes.  Brett Stout did the cover.  It’s edited by Norman Conquest, and available from Black Scat Books.

I’m not sure how old I was when I committed my “Opus No. 1” to paper.  Six?  Seven?  Unfortunately, I didn’t date it.  At any rate, it’s a curious little piece, with the virtue of brevity.  The key signature in the bass at the beginning is probably an error.  And there seem to be sketches for other pieces before and after it; I apparently didn’t develop them further.

This is the first page of four.  It doesn’t end happily for the woodcutter.