The imminent release of Four Mages on 2 May 2024 draws every closer, dear readers, and I’m continuing to feature some of the pieces from that album here. Today’s piece, “The Blind Prophet,” is one I particularly enjoy for its playful experimentation with irregular time signatures and multimeter wackiness.
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Last Saturday I spent pretty much the entire day working on music. It started with an extensive composing session to write “Epistemology,” the title track of my next release, Epistemology, which hits on Friday, 1 March 2024 on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms, sans Spotify (by the way, my newest album, Firefly Dance, released yesterday, and is available now on Bandcamp and streaming platforms—you should get it!). After a long, late nap, I finished up artwork and the rest of the particulars necessary to get the files and metadata uploaded to CD Baby for digital distribution (I might need to write a post about that some day, but it’s not exactly a sexy topic).
I’d written the other nine tracks first, but was searching for some theme or album title. Then I saw poet Stacey C. Johnson‘s “On Knowing,” and that gave me the idea to write a composition based on the different philosophies of knowing, or asking, “how do we know what we know?” [For a good Christian introduction to the topic, check out W. Jay Wood‘s Epistemology: Becoming Intellectually Virtuous on Amazon. —TPP] In this case, it was the title more than the poem’s content that inspired me (although it’s a great poem!), but two of Johnson’s other poems inspired me to write pieces for this album (“Updrafting” and “Waltz“). In a way, I owe Johnson and her writing a huge debt of gratitude for Epistemology, because her work inspired a good chunk of it.
So while my American History students took a quiz on Friday, I rapidly jotted down the basic ideas for “Epistemology.” I wanted to write a repeating theme—like Hector Berlioz‘s idée fixe from his Symphonie Fantastique—that would evolve throughout the different sections. That theme or motif represents Truth as filtered through the various epistemological philosophies, starting with skepticism and proceeding through empiricism, rationalism, idealism, and postmodernism, before finally arriving at God’s Truth. I wanted that last bit to be the seventh part, as seven is traditionally understood to be the number representing God; to do that, I had to shoehorn in “Observation” as the second section. I also specifically wanted the chaos and uncertainty of “The Postmodernist” to be sixth, representing man’s number and his fallen—and confused!—nature.
Epistemology will release on Friday, 1 March 2024 (if you want to know the minute it comes out, take a minute and follow my Bandcamp page). But for you—my adoring subscribers—you get to hear the title track today.
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Ah, the glorious summer. I can already feel it slipping through my Vienna sausage fingers like the grains of sand in an hour glass, or the metaphorical sandbags I’m desperately stacking up against the inexorable tide of the new school year. I love teaching, but having mornings free to write and the like is glorious.
One perk of summer is that I can actually get out to open mic nights again. I’ve missed playing live, and I want to find sustainable ways to play during the school year. It’s difficult, though: I typically don’t get in from an open mic until 10 PM. That’s doable during the summer months, but during the school year, I’m usually zonked out by 9 or 9:30 PM, not hanging out with hipsters in some coffee shop.
Regardless, here are some recent posts featuring original pieces, two of which are open mic performances:
Happy Sunday—and Happy Listening!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
I found myself with a rare bit of free time last Thursday, 18 May 2023. It was Field Day at school that afternoon, and while the kids were frolicking in the rain (yep, it was raining steadily yesterday), I slipped inside for a few quiet moments. I found myself at the piano and, staring down a blank sheet of manuscript paper in my music journal, I decided to compose.
While I didn’t name it right away, the result was “Spore Song (Mushroom Dance).” I’d been wanting to compose a piece named “Spore Song” after reading Stacey C. Johnson‘s post “Spore Song” at her blog Breadcrumbs.
The more I listened to this airy, atmospheric piece, the more I realized that this was “Spore Song.” Because it’s mostly in 3/4 time (with two brief measures in 4/4), I added the parenthetical title “Mushroom Dance.”
Another Spring Break is in the books and I’m back to the grind tomorrow. It’s five weeks of classes, one week of exams, and one week of teacher meetings until I’m free—free!
Before heading into the final leg of the school year, here’s a look back at last week’s Spring Break Short Story Recommendations:
Happy Sunday—and Happy Reading!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
To finish out this year’s Spring Break Short Story Recommendations I’m also reviving (albeit temporarily) an old feature, Supporting Friends Friday. I’m rounding out my short story selections with Stacey C. Johnson‘s “Survey of Poetry,” found at her excellent blog Breadcrumbs.
The Portly Politico 