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

Words to doubt by.  I make up a batch of these pinbacks from time to time; let me know if you want one.

“The Baptistown Crawl” is a delightful and catchy tune, recorded by “Hitch’s Happy Harmonists” in 1924.  Historians remember the band as the first that Hoagy Carmichael recorded with.  This tune, however, seems to have been written by the leader, Curtis Hitch.  I transcribed it, and arranged it for viola and piano, in which form David Gold and I have often performed it.  The lumbering piano part is well suited for some of the recalcitrant pianos I’ve faced in those gigs.

Here’s a page of the pencil draft — not inked yet, because I still fuss with it.

“The Hand Without the Fingers Is Just a Spoon” was one of the pieces I wrote as a student at Oberlin Conservatory.  It was a piano suite, made up of diatonic motifs, repeated and varied within a rhythmic structure.  In keeping with its diatonic foundation, it was structured mostly around the number 7.

I have a certain fondness for it, and finally decided in 2012 to revisit it and spruce it up a bit.

“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.  It marked my first foray into ventriloquism.  And Bill Irwin came along for the ride, which was nice of him.  The decor included a set of floor tiles that I made: one side was black, with twin stars on each; the other side assembled to form a black and silver elephant, blown up from a small children’s stencil.

The drawings were rather dense; here are four of them.

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 still surface on eBay.

A song about aging, always a crowd-pleasing subject.  This is the first verse.

I joined Them Keener Boys for their debut CD in 1999, contributing trombone to “How’s It Going Mary?”, and backup vocals to “My Booty Cost a Dollah” and “Whores.”  If I recall correctly, I also played uke on “My Booty.”

I think everyone can appreciate the sentiments of this song.  I recorded it for my CD That Regrettable Weekend, then later arranged it for uke, voice, and viola.

When I was sixteen, I wrote a piece for string orchestra, which was played by the high school orchestra.  It was not a particularly sophisticated piece, relying heavily on tritones, but I learned a lot doing it.  And I can still remember the thrill of hearing it for the first time.  I apologize for the title; adolescents should be kept from Cummings.  Here’s the first page, in its original teen-script, and the program.