"The Bottomland"
Written by Cindy Castevens
Performed by Polecat Creek
Kari Sickenberger (alto), Laurelyn Dossett (soprano)

According to Cindy, twins run in her family and they tend to come early. She wrote this song (based on a story she heard about her great great grandfather) the year before she became pregnant with her own set of twins. Cindy was the first in her direct family line where the mother and the twins all survived, even though they came six months early. All are healthy and well! Cindy says, "I love hearing the old family stories, and have written several songs based on those stories. This melody and some of the lyrics just popped into my head after hearing family stories; so I didn't use my theory brain--just intuition!”

“Bagatelle No. 15, Honkin’ Barry”
Jeffrey Panther- arrangement, MIDI sequencing

Jeffery Panther was born in 1956 and began playing trumpet in the 3rd grade. In the 5th grade, his band director got him into the piano and then theory. He continued to play trumpet in school band and with the Tucson Youth Symphony. In college, he became a trumpet major but left after 2 years to join the nursing profession. He is now getting back into piano and composing. While he doesn’t claim any level of virtuosity, he does improvise every day which has become the basis for his composing, a bug he’s had ever since childhood.

This piece is a riveting, upbeat composition arranged for baritone sax, synth, celeste and percussion. Listen to the enterplay between the sax and the celeste as the synth maintains an ostenato bass line that creates an anchor in the chaos!

"Nocturne in G# Minor"
Written and performed by Edward Thomas Bender

Edward was in his early 40’s when first we met on Ep. 140. When last we spoke, he identified as a medical physicist by day and an amateur classical pianist by night. He was about a year and a half into daily piano practice and now we can hear how very far he has come. On this piece, he has commited to paying more attention to dynamics (loudness and softness) and rubato (sublte speed changes for emotional effect). So listen for that. Edward says, “If you know Chopin's nocturnes you will recognize the influence from his nocturnes in Bb minor and C# minor." We hear it. Can you? Below, we share the "annotated" version of this score so you can read his notes and ideas. Pretty cool of him to share!

Hear more from Edward Thomas Bender on:
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Check out his fancy finger work on:
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"No Adults In The Room"
Grant Schultz- vocals, arrangement, MIDI sequencing

Grant has shared this track, "No Adults in the Room" from his album, Experience Points. For Grant, this album represents him trying to get over his fear of making "bad music". Grant says, “I never thought I could make music. I never learned an instrument; I don't really have an ear or a voice. But after I turned 40 I figured why the hell not try. For some reason I don't understand, sheet music opened up music making to me. I figured if I could make sense of sheet music then I would have access to tons and tons of music and its structure. Once I started learning notation and theory, it started making sense and I was hooked. Even if I couldn't play an instrument or sing, maybe I could compose. For the past couple years I've been listening to your excellent podcast, reading theory, (sort of) learning keyboard, and writing music with Musescore, mixing in Audacity, and creating vocals with ACE studios. I decided I just had to make stuff and not ask why. Once I found Musescore and music theory I knew it was possible that if I got those little dots and flags in the right spot something beautiful could happen. I have since been disabused of that notion, and feel now that theory is primarily a descriptive effort, not a creative one. Now I'm trying to find a way into the pulse of making music, as notation through Musescore provides no good way of feeling music. Hence I find myself uprooted again, I see the limitations of composing by sheet music but do not have the means to do otherwise. I cannot make music and yet I must... I'm not great but I'm getting better and having fun."

This piece was generated, via MIDI, from the notation of his score. It is of standard rock n' roll instrumentation (guitar, bass, drums and vocals). It is in Fm and played in the style and form of a blues progression. However, he uses mediants (III and VI) in lieu of predominants and dominants (IV and V). Regarding the lyrics, Grant asked himself, "At 40 what I would tell myself at 14 - and it was something like don't trust the people in power, you are as good as them, and prove it if you have the chance."

"Ebb and Flow"
Nicola Rizzuto- piano, MIDI sequencing

Nicola, is based out of Cologne, Germany. Though mainly a songwriter, he has just released his first EP of mellow and soothing instrumental music! This piece, "Ebb and Flow" is featured on said EP. Of this piece, Nico says, "I was thinking about the ocean, its constant flow and how it’s forever changing and yet it’s always the same. And how it can be a metaphor for life itself. I started with the harmony, the broken minor chords with the clashing minor second at the top and how its lilting quality reminded me of waves. The haunting melody came after, not as an intellectual choice dictated by music theory, but simply by paying attention to the feeling different notes evoked against that harmonic backdrop. Because the piece felt more longing and pensive rather than sad, I felt that the chorus should provide resolution by erupting into a brighter and more positive mood, and this dictated the major chords and matching melody appearing later. The piece was first composed entirely on the piano, the rest of the arrangement was written later as an extra layer added to the piano repeat .All the instruments, whether real (piano) or virtual,  have been played by me. The mixing and mastering were done by my sound engineer friend Lukas Nicke”

This piece is in Am and begins with an Am9 chord. The sweet, but dissonant, effect this creates reminds us of some of our favorite French composers of the Romantic era. See what you think! Another cool technique he uses is to change chords over a repeating melody. Check it out!



Hear more from Nicola Rizzuto on:
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Check out is videos on:
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"A Love Letter To A Profound Artform"
Alex Turnbull- spoken word, piano, drums, bass, guitar, synth, logs, leaves, bird song, rocks...EVERYTHING!!

Alex Turnbull returns to the show! He shares with us a piece that is lush in texture and crosses many genres, styles and moods. With spoken word, he tells the story of his inspirations and his methods for compositions. This composition consists of: