Hi, I'm Danny.

The entire song Tempest may be difficult listening (top pop 40 it isn't). Just a note for interpretation: Many notes may sound like mistakes—they're not. Many chords aren't melodic and some of the rhythm approaches a seizure—intentional. Sometimes life isn't sweet harmonies and under our control, sometimes stuff happens, sometimes a lot of stuff happens. Anyway, I posted it as five smaller pieces, and then the whole song at the bottom. The smaller pieces are:

"premonition" oppressive tension of an approaching storm.

"sturm und drang" brings the first lashes of the gale—structured, exactly timed, repetitive, unsettling, off-balance. It is the romantic intensity of emotion one feels when one has no idea just how bad it's really going to get.

"hopeful monster" is both more melodic and more dissonant. It entwines the stinging drops of chaos with a desperate bid to retain normalcy.

"double bind" gets to the heart of the matter. It has underlying structure and melody, but is also raindrops in a downpour, lives in the maelstrom of human existence.

"dancing on the waves" has a swaying, wistful beauty—a farewell, a new beginning.

Maxwell was a Good Dog. I still miss him.

He died young—tragic accident, fell into an icy pond, out playing in the snow on a bitter winter day.

A few years later I thought of him when I sat down to play. There's some beautiful stuff I never played before. When I play freeform, I throw stuff against the wall to see if anything will stick. Sometimes something does. In this session, more did than usual. What's posted here is the first part of that recording, reworked.

history rewritten is from awhile back, it coalesced during the 80's, and I finally got it all on paper. The posted PDF includes the musical score, and screenshots of the piano roll. The MP3 was generated from the sheet music, so it is technically correct but has no soul. I'll post a version I've played when I play one I'm happy with. I'm not sure why it's called "history rewritten," that's just its name and to me it fits.

This is just some random stuff from practice sessions, some of it turned out pretty well so I kept it, some of it has been reworked to fix glitches, some of it is totally raw.

"Some Stuff" is a reworked bit from a practice session. It starts out with part of a song I'm working on, "Once, I climbed a mountain," morphs into part of another song I haven't named yet, and a few other odds and ends.

"xyz" is a raw practice session. Someday I'll pick out some of the good parts and rework them.

I named this one "outta nowhere" because one night I couldn't sleep and got up to play the piano for awhile, and as soon as I sat down to play, this song, almost as it is in this tamed version, jumped out of my fingers and onto the keys. And, fortunately, into a midi recording—Cakewalk was running. At first I was frustrated because, even though the song was recorded, and even though I could see and print the notes as a musical staff, I couldn't actually play it. Then my son Jon noted that I had played it once so obviously I could play it. He suggested I deconstruct it bit by bit back from the notes, so I did, and finally figured out how to play it live.

Not sure why I call this one "The End" ... just seems to fit. It's one of my longer songs, about 15 minutes. When I play it I feel a keen awareness of Earth in the cosmos, our fragile existence on this tiny speck of dust in the vast emptiness of space. The MP3 is a working version, more than a few rough spots, one day I'll make a better one. In the second half, in places I wandered off into melodies of a couple other of my songs, and I left those in, but they're not part of the song as written in the sheet music. And, other parts also aren't on the sheet music but are part of the song now ... one of these days I'll revise the sheet music.

indian plains is the beginning of a much longer song called "Open Road", but it's a self-contained song in itself. I think it is delicate and dramatic. I named this one [native american] indian plains, because when I play it I get mental imagery of wind and open spaces, horses galloping across the plains, storms, conflict, sorrow, resolve. So for such a short song, to me it's pretty intense. Play this one with as much emotion as you can get away with and still keep the melody and momentum going. The MP3 of the sheet music does not do the song justice, I will post a live version soon.

canon in f is bookended by the beautiful melody of "Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God (and His righteousness, and all these things shall be given unto you. Allelu Alleluia.)" I didn't write that melody, not sure who did, it's been around for awhile. Try not to play the canon part too ponderously. Play the notes precisely, with gentle control.

Make My Prayer is short, the memory of an old hymn and a few other odds and ends

resurrection is a very short song, repeated twice. Play it slowly and carefully, with precise control, and, especially the second time through, with deep emotion—stretch the timing as much as you want.

When I play faraway I get mental images of snow-capped mountain peaks, of long, dusty trails winding through valleys and rocky passes, of never-ending journey, of desolate beauty and exhaustion. I have some good midi from playing it that I want to record and post. Also working on a quintet version - violin, viola, cello, piano, and harpsichord.