TAKEN DOWN UPON TRPTK’S REQUEST – To The Thawing Wind

DON’T RELEASE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE (as per TRPTK’s instructions on August 19, 2021)

Album Liner Notes

Those who have experienced cruel winters in cold climates know the precise sense of isolation that accompanies months of gray skies, snowdrifts, and icy window panes. But perhaps many more of us in 2020 have now experienced a different kind of isolation, stillness, or even hopelessness. Just as Frost beckoned the “loud Southwester” to bring the birds, rain, and warmth of spring, many of us now yearn for change, inspiration, and renewal. A shared desperation for freedom. A melting away of tension and hostility. New energy born from the stillness.

The thawing wind is not necessarily tranquil – change rarely is. In Robert Frost’s poem, Pan with Us, Pan confronts a changed landscape. Where once he stood proudly in charge of his domain, his “pipes of pagan mirth” in hand, ready to make his mark (or his music) on the world, he now discovers that the world has found “new terms of worth.” It no longer values his offering. Now what?

The original poem ends with an open-ended question: “What should he play?” Paul Gay’s bold and hopeful change: “What [shall we] play?” is an invitation to join in this period of discovery. We need not relegate our craft to the neglected “sun-burned earth,” even if our old pipes and methods must be discarded along the way.

Just as Pan confronted his vastly altered landscape, we too have the opportunity to revitalize and “give the buried flower a dream.” Despite his rejection, Pan altered course and found that the calls of the animals and the sounds of nature “were music enough for him, for one.”

As we all pine for a new season in life, we hope that this album inspires you to find the music that brings you fulfillment in this moment. Of course, this could take the form of art. But it could also be the sound of a brook running through the forest, a child’s laugh, love for a partner, a flowering garden, fantastical dreams, the night sky, or gratitude for the simple miracle of being alive. We invite you to listen carefully to that music, feel deeply, take risks, seek adventure, be whole, and find joy in your life.

Thoughts From The Composer

“In the still moment between dusk and dark, a single note well-played on a musical instrument is a thing of beauty all by itself.”—PG

The World as it is, or the World as you want it to be? How to choose? The ebb and flow of consonance and dissonance vary considerably with the choice made, carrying the listener’s attention and interest along with the flow. Dissonance is to music as a combustion engine is to an auto, it’s your friend. A little too much however results in fumes too strong for some. Music without the spice of dissonance can grow tedious, void of that which effectively drives it. Music requires repose too. Dissonance and consonance – one without the other has a plateau effect. “Nature abhors a vacuum’ but I think is not too keen on plateaus either. The artistry is in the approach and the departure. There is a void in every human waiting to be filled. The fortunate begin filling it early on with the arts, something that guides the soul and subsequent interactions with humans and nature. I cannot imagine a world without music or art. My sincere thanks to soprano Jayne West for whom the Frost Songs were written; to good friend baritone David Maze for his encouragement and for introducing me to the soloists; to the musicians whose great talents, professionalism and attitudes made this project an absolute delight; and to Brendon Heinst for his expertise and devotion to excellence, a model to us all.