Throughout the 80’s I wrote quite a few very short pieces. The idea of something that was thirty seconds or one minute long, but that had a clear and inventive structure, seemed very appealing. “Coffee-Cup Ashtray” was written in 1981 for string quintet. This transcription for three guitars and two basses was recorded in January of 2009.
RECENT WORK
“A Nation in Decline” was completed in June of 2009.
You can shake him any time,
He hasn’t spies to live inside your world.
Still you want him, stern and blind,
You never meant to slip so suddenly.
Someone else has been inside you,
And he knows it, but he can’t prove it.
Abating doubts as you define them,
And deny them, till he just drops them.
It’s surprising, now you’re here,
No one can see which room you’re walking through.
Though uncertain, life is fine.
No one will ever see the door you chose.
We’re a nation in decline,
We’re the binge before the fall,
We’re a smog on the horizon,
We’re the relic on a wall.
We cut ahead in line,
The zeitgeist of the fall,
We had to have it all,
We’re a nation in decline.
