Apology for a String Quartet

Not "apology" in the sense of I'm sorry I wrote it, but in the sense of an explanation of how and why. I emigrated to Vancouver Island when I was fourteen years old, so it came at a for…

Working Up to the 3,000th Post: Guitar Recordings

As you know if you read my biography, my main professional career was as a classical guitar soloist. I did a number of recordings in those years and some of them are quite listenable--well, you be th…

Thirteen Ways of Looking at "Dark Dream": An Analysis

A couple of years ago I was writing a piece for violin and guitar that I ultimately titled Dark Dream . This piece went through several stages and ended up being the longest single piece of music I h…

"Dark Dream" (2018) for violin and guitar

Dong Qichang, Eight Views of Autumn Moods, dated 1620. Album of eight leaves, leaf five I picked this painting by the great Chinese artist and scholar Dong Qichang to introduce this piece because I h…