A round, based on verses that accompany a children’s card game from the ’30s.

And here’s the game itself…

Robin Hoffman attends many performances at Brooklyn’s Jalopy Theater, and sketches what she sees.  She’s posted a picture of me with the tuba player Ralph Hamperian, over here.

This little song sometimes had a place in the puppet shows I did with Michael Smith back in the ’90s.

“Shofar Bells,” an arrangement of “Jingle Bells” for shofar and viola, can be heard over at the Holiday Recording Party site.  Meg Reichardt’s annual holiday album is a Brooklyn tradition; I’m happy to participate.  As is traditional, it was written the night before, and recorded during a marathon session among children, dogs, alcohol, food, and squabbling musicians.  You can also hear my song “The Parcel.”  David Gold joins me on both.

I have a fondness for chorales: nuggets of harmony, where I can play around with voice leading.  I wrote several for piano, later incorporated into my 4th String Quartet.

“Prof. Williams’ New System” was the first piece I toured with the Oberlin Dance Collective, back in 1974.  I was 19.  I don’t remember much about the piece, but did keep a rough score/script.  The title was taken from a 19th century manual on the care of horses and cattle, and the text came from that and other sources.  According to my notes, I played ‘cello, bulbul (a sort of Indian dulcimer), camel bells, and percussion.   I do remember that I wrote it using bits of found material within a network of associations.

It was reviewed briefly in the Boston Globe.  At least I knew when to stop!

It was also reviewed somewhat more sympathetically by Peter Walsh  in the Oberlin Review.