This installment of Phone it in Friday: YouTube Roundup is quite phoned-in, as all of today’s videos were in Wednesday’s post. But if you prefer to scroll through videos about Japanese Trapdoor Snails and koi ponds instead of reading, today’s post is for you!
It’s hard to understate how excited I was to get these snails. Now that they’re here, I want more fish! Such is the nature of human endeavors—we always want more. There is always another fish to conquer.
My Middle School Music Ensemble students have been learning the iconic “Morning” (sometimes called “Morning Mood”) by Edvard Grieg in preparation for the SCISA Music Festival this Thursday, 12 March 2026. I began toying with the main theme and came up with today’s piece.
I’m continuing to plug away at some compositions for a planned release, Koi Dance. This week I’m featuring a solemn but hopeful duet.
Yours portly is continuing to work on his collection of pond-based tunes, Koi Dance. I introduced some rosy red minnows to our koi pond about a month ago, which inspired today’s piece.
The koi pond at our new house has served as a source of immense inspiration for yours portly. I’ve spent many late nights researching various species of aquatic life that can thrive in our little pond ecosystem. I’m most excited about getting some Japanese Trapdoor Snails for our pond.
In the meantime, however, I’ve added some ramshorn snails to the pond already. They arrived in a bag from an eBay seller in Oklahoma, clinging to the walls of their watery shipping compartment. I drove them up one frosty night and gently plopped them into the pond, which inspired today’s new piece.
Yours portly has three separate releases that I plan to now release in early September, as my distributor, CD Baby, usually takes about three weeks to approve releases for distribution. Two of the releases feature older works, but one will feature tons of new pieces.
This week, I’m featuring one of those new pieces, “Triple Deluxe”:
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I’m in the process of working on three different releases right now, two of which consist of old material (some of it very old), one of which includes new works. My tentative plan is to release all three of them on the same day, so listeners will enjoy an explosion of new-to-them pieces from yours portly.
The collection of new pieces is Ringtone Circus. The pieces don’t all have a Nokia cellphone ringtone feel to them, but several possess that plinking, happy, upbeat quality.
Today, I’m sharing the pieces that prominently feature mallet-based instruments: vibraphones, marimbas, etc.
The first piece is the title track, “Ringtone Circus“:
“Ringtone Circus” is a trio for marimbas. It sounds like a lively cell phone ringtone!
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I’ve been composing quite a few trios lately, as I’ve been playing around with blending three of the same sounds. This week, I’ve got a fun little marimba piece that sounds very much like a cellphone ringtone.
