When I was a boy of 10 or so, my Dad started building out the unfinished basement in our suburban Annapolis home to make more room for our family of five.
My two sisters were getting pretty cramped in their shared bedroom and I was happy to move downstairs where construction was proceeding on my new bedroom and a family room and another full bath, as well as some man-space for Dad - a quiet corner with a desk, and a workshop.
Even before the rooms in the basement were complete, I moved down there and the sisters each got their own bedroom upstairs.
Dad was teaching Physics at the US Naval Academy and finishing up his coursework for a Ph.D.
In the evenings, Dad would study - he said the hardest part of the curriculum for his Ph.D. was the foreign language requirement - and he was really struggling to learn enough German to pass. While the basement construction project was in progress given whatever time he could afford to give it, my bed and his desk were in pretty close proximity. I often fell asleep listening to the small FM radio he always had tuned to one of the classical music stations out of Washington or Baltimore, while he studied by the light of a small fluorescent desk lamp.
So even though during my conscious hours I was starting to listen to John Denver, The Beatles, Gordon Lightfoot, and other rock/folk/pop artists as I learned to play the guitar, my brain was getting soaked with baroque and related early orchestral music from Dad’s radio.
Now that modern computing and digital audio have come together to allow all of the sounds of an orchestra to be ‘played’ from a computer or piano keyboard with excellent fidelity and realistic-sounding technique, it’s possible to write music for the orchestra without having to assemble a large group of talented and proficient musicians, nor rent a soundstage or studio.
So I can sit here and allow the reflections of those sounds I heard falling asleep as a kid reassemble themselves into new combinations and I can instruct the computer to play the notes I hear in my head with the instrument and articulation I choose.
This partcular composition I have titled, ‘The Orphan of Eisenach’ as a tribute to Johann Sebastion Bach, who was born in Eisenach in the very center of Germany at the end of March in 1685, and who was orphaned at the age of ten. It is also in a way an assertion of hope for all of those who are suffering under the attack on Ukraine by Russian armed forces, especially the children.
Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann in 1746, when Bach was 61 years old.
Here are some musical excerpts. I hope to release the complete composition - which runs over nine minutes - here soon.
Thanks for listening. And thank you, Mom & Dad, for giving me the chance to hear, learn, and play music.