All Descript Part2

Musical pieces of David J. Erskine.

Detailed Piece Descriptions (Part 2, Years 1994 onward) Part 1
(Alphabetically ordered within each Part)

— Alien Theme
Composed 2011 as impromptu. This wasn't meant for Tim Erskine's movie (The Emissary, 2015), but I visualized his alien while this tune popped into my hands in the fall after I helped him film that summer.

— Anthropic Theme
Anthropic Theme of suite Terraphilia. Composed circa 1999. This movement was going to be about mankind effecting the Earth. Opens with a little boy awakening… then men marching. I never fully developed the suite. See also "Dark Forest".

— Buonasera
Composition inspired in 2017 by accidentally playing the 7-note two hand parallel motiv while working on another piece. I was entranced. Title suggested by other Composers Group's members. Promenading at sunset through the village?

— Dark Forest
Composed beginning in 1999, this movement was originally to be about water. But by 2007 my mind follows a creek illuminated by dappled light meandering through a forest. (Another movement of this suite is “Anthropic Theme”). In Feb. 2007 my brother Tim moved into his Marin County, Calif place. He wanted to test microphones, so I played this piece on his Mason-Hamlin piano. (Exuberance! was similarly recorded there.)

— Door County Serenade 2019
Named after a lovely area of Wisconsin where my brother was married, since I considered playing it as a processional-- but ended up playing something else. In July 2006 this idea popped out when I started playing an older piece sufficiently slowly. In December 6, 2019 I recorded this version with a slower tempo at the Piano Composers winter recital at St. Paul's.

— Exuberance!
Composed circa 2007. Played March 2007 on my brother Tim’s Mason-Hamlin piano while he was testing microphones (“Dark Forest” was similarly recorded there). It was an etude I had developed to challenge myself for agility, and the left and right hands parallel each other.

— Foggy Full Moon
I was at Christopher's vacation house on the foggy coast in 2021 June and he insisted that I play something, but I had nothing ready. So I improvised this new melody. Recorded February 19, 2022 at Megasonic studio (Jeremy Goody), then released on Youtube March 12, 2022 as first (at 1:10 mark) of several artists of the Piano Composers recital (Contra Costa Performing Arts Society presents ... Piano Composers Chapter).
https://youtu.be/RMwr6tFR2Vo

— Golden Little Flower
The first plaintive section is about loss and was composed in 2010. At that time I could envision a change of chords and moods to a resolution section, but I had writer's block. So I put it away until Februrary 2020 when I figured out how to break through my blockage, with the quiet "dark night" interlude followed by a dawn of the next section. Its hopeful tone is a counterweight to the sadness of year 2020. I finished in October 2020. Recorded Nov. 8, 2020 on a Yamaha C3 by Jeremy Goody and vidoegrapher Bill Rudiak at MegaSonic Sound in Oakland, for an online Youtube recital for six composers Nov. 24, 2020 sponsored by Contra Costa Performing Arts Society, and organized by Christopher Johnson of our Composers Group. Check out the recording, and video!

— In the Dark
Composed July 2021. For the previous 9 months I hadn't been able to compose anything— I would go to the keyboard and nothing would come out! (I guess the sadness of the times and work stresses). Fellow composer Christopher Johnson helped shake me out of my funk by forcing me to improvise at his keyboard when I visited him at Sea Ranch in June (which resulted in Foggy Full Moon). Then a couple weeks later in July this new melody popped into my head when I was watching TV and I quickly went to the piano to preserve it. I ended up playing for a long time-- so long that the lights on the automatic timer clicked out. Sheryl came into the livingroom and said "Did you know that you are playing in the dark?"— gosh, how did she already know the title of the piece?
This piece is a romp-- exuberance alternating with more measured lyrical passages. In places it's on the edge of what my fingers can do (but good to always challenge oneself). Recorded October 8, 2021 at Piano Composers recital at Grace Presbyterian Church in Walnut Creek. (Digital recorder was placed casually placed on carpet near edge of piano, underneath.)

— Janus - Herald and Introspection, for Trumpet and Piano
| Sound1, Sound2 | Score |
For the January 6, 1996 recital I invited my trumpet playing step-brother Richard House to participate, to play some pieces with accompanist Irene Jacobson, and I to play my solo piano pieces (tracks on CD Expressions and CD Self-Portrait). With 3 weeks to go, I took the opportunity of Rick's presence to try my hand at a trumpet-piano piece, and I composed this piece "Janus" for the occasion. This was actually my first effort composing for another instrument besides piano, and my first performance accompanying another player. I wanted a cheerful heralding piece to begin the concert, so Janus begins with a joyful counterpoint. The middle section is dark and brooding to act as a foil. With these light/dark contrasting sections, it seemed appropriate to name the piece after the Roman god Janus, who is identified with doors, gates, and all beginnings and is represented artistically with two opposite faces. Composed by David Erskine, Dec 14-18, 1996. Playing time 8:50.

— Little Red
In 2014 I adapted an earlier tune I had invented in 2009 while painting interior of my house. The adaptation was for my brother Paul's video (Little Red, 2014) based on Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf characters. The 2009 tune already was happy-go-lucky, so all I needed to do was add the wolf chords.

— March Rain
| Sound (2012 vers) | - |
Composed initially May 2012, and then completed January 2019, based on an idea improvised March 2011. First performed for the Composers Group Recital, June 15, 2012, Grace Presbyterian Church, Walnut Creek, CA, Contra Costa Performing Arts Society series, and then again in more mature form Februrary 15, 2019. The sound snip is the 2012 version in rehearsal warming up for the performance, and it appears as 4th track in CD Musings (2018). The Febuary 15, 2019 version (1st track of CD Mist [2019] and 4th track of CD Dappled) has a more developed middle and ending, and is the version I prefer.

— Nocturne for Judy
Composed November 2021 for my brother Tim's wife Holly's mother who was passing away. Recorded September 30, 2022 at Piano Composers recital at Grace Presbyterian Church in Walnut Creek.

— November's Feelings
Impromptu from 2010.

— October's Feelings
Impromptu from 2010.

— Our Blue Dot Too
The title refers to a piece about the Earth that I was working on many years ago. More ideas came in 2018, and then this version was recorded at Megasonic studio March 5, 2023 for the YouTube concert April 3, 2023 (Contra Costa Performing Arts Society - Spring Concert by the Piano Composers Chapter). I am the 3rd performer at 8:57 mark.
https://youtu.be/iBErd7qRYoY.

— Pale Blue Dot
Composed 2018 in collaboration with JD Margulici. I composed the piano accompaniment, and JD Margulici wrote the lyrics and sang the vocals. This is a song about how the Earth is being polluted. It was inspired by the chords of the Anthropic Theme (which is in 6/4 time) but done in the 4/4 time that JD likes.

— Paul's Theme (I Promise You), for Trumpet and Piano
| Sound | Score |
The theme just popped out one day while I was whistling, the day before my brother Paul visited me in the spring of 1993. I knew immediately it could be a memorable melody, so I ran to the piano before I could forget it. My sister Lynn was also visiting and she remarked that the theme sounded appropriate for a transition. That's when it crystallized into its wedding purpose. By the next day I composed the middle section, and the piece was was largely finished in two days, which was unusually quick for me. I dedicated the piece to his upcoming wedding to his first wife Jill, and he used it in his wedding videos.

— Redwoods Idea
Impromptu from 2011. It begins with the sound of crickets; I was picturing a foggy redwood forest.

— Reverie
Begins with the "Little Red" theme of 2015 that my brother Paul used in a family video, but then instead of the “Wolf” section this 2024 version explores different chords. Performed Dec 6, 2024 at the Piano Composers winter concert. Video (Dave Erskine - Reverie, Composers Concert Grace Presbyterian Church Dec 9, 2024) on Youtube by Robert Thomas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Q4p-WlQwA

— Rick's Wedding Serenade (When You're Not Near, or When You're Near Me)
| Sound | Score |
Wedding piece for Richard and Ann-Marie House, July 9, 1994 in Frederick, Maryland. The title in 1994 was "When You're Not Near". A few years later my brother Tim liked that title so much I gave him permission to use it for his own independent composition, for his 2002 CD First Light, (which had lyrics befitting the title). So I changed the title of my score to When You're Near Me. But then in 2018 for the track in CD Musings, I returned to the original title When You're Not Near. The theme was borrowed from an undeveloped October 1989 idea i had allocated for my sister Lynn— but Rick beat her to the matrimonial state.

— Riff on Pachelbel
Impromptu from 2011 based on an older idea from 2008. I revamped it for this November 30, 2019 version, which has better acoustics, recorded at Piano Composers CCPAS recital St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Walnut Creek, Calif.

— The Spaceman
This is a newer version of the 2011 Alien theme from CD Musings. Recorded June 10, 2023 at Piano Composers recital at Grace Presbyterian Church in Walnut Creek, Calif.

— Theme for Emily (soundtrack for Paul's "Footage" video)
Based on an idea from March 4, 1992, developed further in 1999, and then used by my brother Paul in his short video "Footage" around late 1999 which features a character Emily. He recorded me casually playing home piano. Eventually I also performed it for the Piano Composers group in a recital 11/30/2012, but that was not recorded.

— Welcome Paul & Evelyne
| - | Score |
A piece for piano and trumpet finished Sept 2007 for my brother Paul's wedding to Evelyne. Performed at their outdoor ceremony in San Francisco overlooking the marina, with Richard House performing on trumpet. Based on a ditty from January 1996.

— Winter
Introspective and brooding, it was composed just a few days before the Piano Composers winter recital recorded December 9, 2016 at St. Paul’s.

— Your'e a Star in My Heavens
Composed circa 2014. This was a practice version June 6, 2014, the week prior to the Composers Group recital.

info@pineshadow.com
Oakland, California

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