Getting a Handel on Winter

Certain kinds of music are linked to certain seasons for me. To the point where I really don't listen to music in the "wrong" season.

Winter is a time when I really can get a craving for classical. Maybe it's something about indoors and candles and chamber music and old city streets and balls and "high society." I just can't imagine the sound of a harpsichord in sweltering heat with a round of umbrella drinks in hand.

Even though I'm not religious, I'm especially drawn to Handel's Messiah this time of year. (Being a purist, I stick to the Christmassy, rather than Easterish parts.)

Here's an amazing soloist, if you're interested. Her name is Sara Macliver, a celebrated singer in Australia. Her tone and control really are incredible. Not to mention an outright pretty voice.

You rock, Sara!!! (In a hardcore classical sorta way.)

Fly on the Ocean Mists

In honor of St. Patrick's Day and my Irish (well, melting pot) heritage, I offer you a journey in images from the ocean to the emerald forest and O Danny Boy on the low whistle. May spring be close by you!



(Photos and music by Jason Evans.)

Auld Lang Syne

I'd like to leave you on this last night of 2009 and the dawn of 2010 with a little tune. My first solo recording on the Irish low whistle. (Props to my daughter who accompanied me on Silent Night). The images are a selection of my photos that I used here this year.

To acquaintances old and new, I toast you. To auld lang syne. May the shadows of 2009 never return and the graces of 2010 uplift you.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

(Oh. And by the way, the "Silhouette" Short Fiction Contest will open on Wednesday, January 6th! Hurray!!)

Silent Night

For all of you celebrating, WE WISH YOU A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY SEASON!!

Here is a quick arrangement of Silent Night that I wrote for my 10-year-old daughter and me. She is on the recorder, and I am on the Irish low whistle.

Keep the ones you love close on these long, dark nights.

(And for my southern hemisphere friends, stay cool!)

Midnight Blue

In the early 1982, I heard a curious song on the radio.

I was twelve. My parents liked it too. I guess I wasn't old enough yet for that to kill the deal.

Here it is. Midnight Blue by Louise Tucker. Do you happen to recognize the melody?

(This fan video is actual better than the original, uber-hokey video from 1982. Some intense images...but that ending really turned my head around. Jesus shows up? Whoa. But I digress.)

Roll forward seven years. I was a freshman in college trying to take some good advice. I was getting out and seeing performances and lectures and extra things like that (I could have done more). I attended a Beethoven pianoforte concert, the instrument that Beethoven composed on. (The piano as we know it today wasn't quite invented yet.)

Anyway, along came a sonata in three movements. Pathetique. I was moderately interested. But when the second movement came, the adagio cantabile, my breath caught. I knew that! Thanks to Louise Tucker!

This piece of music ranks as one of the beautiful melodies ever written. It still hits me, even after hearing it countless times. But this performance by Freddie Kempf is truly stunning. As one of the video commenters on YouTube said so perfectly: "Most people who play piano are capable of playing this song, playing it at this level however is truly amazing. It's in the subtleties [and] anyone who has tried to play it can hear this! Special performance, very controlled!"

I can't agree more. Of all the versions I've heard, this is the one performance where the pianist transcends everything holding him down. He utterly "gets it." It's a piece that can become very mechanical when you play it. It takes a touch of something dark and sweet to lift the melody and dance its slow melancholy waltz.

I also think this piece has one of the most genius, simple, and enchanting endings ever. Like the end of a fanciful reflection. The pieces of the daydream are laid to rest.

Respect, Beethoven.

5 O'Clock Road

I started playing music in grade school. French horn. A few years later, I quit.

But that's not to say that music didn't deeply fascinate me. I picked it up at age 17 with the piano. I wanted to learn, really learn, the intricasies of music and theory and composition, but felt like the information bounced off a wall in my head. It wouldn't penetrate.

When I was 29, I picked up the bagpipes and took lessons from a piper. I feel pretty proficient at that. If you've been a reader of The Clarity of Night for a while, or have visited my YouTube page, you've heard me play.

But still, music structure and theory remained mysterious.

To be honest, music composition is something I've always wanted to do. Song writing also. But I resigned myself to the fact that it was beyond my abilities.

Mostly.

But then, the bug hit me again. I bought Music Theory for Dummies and dove into chord structure, chord progression, and accompaniment theory. It began to stick!

I have a long way to go and still may find it beyond my reach, but I'm very happy to share my first original composition with you. It's a little piano tune that I made into a short video. It was my first foray into chord progressions.

A road is good place to begin any journey. I hope to share more compositions and perhaps songs. For now, here is 5 O'Clock Road.

Shores of Spring

Comments are now added to each contest entry from Jason, and Aine has about half to go. Thank you, everyone, for sharing your "Whispers."

Now, it's time to dispel the ghosts. Here is the "Shores of Spring," a bagpipe serenade to the coming sights and colors of spring.





--Jason Evans
John Walsh Shuttle Pipes
"The Shores of Argyll"