Today I present my original composition, IN A COOL PLACE.  I completed this piece in 1999 and scored it for jazz sextet (flugel horn, tenor saxophone, electric guitar, piano, upright bass, and brush drum kit).   Below is a screenshot of the title page from the autograph score:

This composition was my attempt to create the kind of "classic" jazz I frequently heard while growing up.

As I sometimes do, I created a little scenario by the combination of several different sound effects to contribute immersion to the listening experience.

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IN A COOL PLACE, Copyright©1999 DamonMusic by Sean Damon Rohde. All rights reserved

Today I present my original composition, A LIFE IN A DAY.  I composed this little song in 2012 to my own words for my father. It is scored for soprano voice, two guitars, and mandolin.  Below is a screenshot of the title page from the autograph score:

If my Life consisted of just a single day
And none but you alone were I to know,
I'd live my precious seconds with great thankfulness away,
Knowing that my joy to you would owe.

Father, father, father, father,
All to you I owe.
Father, father, father, father,
All to you I owe.

And when that eve, I'd lay me down for first and final time,
My light and happy heart to gently cease,
I'd turn to you and say before my clock's final chime--
"Father, all I ever knew was peace."

Father, father, father, father,
All I knew was peace.
Father, father, father, father,
All I knew was peace.
All I knew was peace.
All I knew was peace.

***

I wrote this in commemoration of my father's 70th birthday.

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A LIFE IN A DAY, Copyright©2012 DamonMusic by Sean Damon Rohde. All rights reserved

Today I present my original composition, THE FRUITS OF SILENCE (CHORUS FOR MOTHER TERESA).  I completed this piece in 1996 and scored it for choir and organ.  Below is a screenshot of the title page from the autograph score:

In late 1994, I wrote to Mother Teresa saying that I was composing a choral work in celebration of her, her sisterhood, and her forty-five years of service on behalf of the "poorest of the poor". Soon I received a letter in response from Mother Teresa, herself, in which she expressed her gratitude for my gesture.

Enclosed in her letter to me was a small card on which was printed this simple prayer:

The fruit of Silence is Prayer.
The fruit of Prayer is Faith.
The fruit of Faith is Love.
The fruit of Love is Service.
The fruit of Service is Peace.

Not having found any text for my new work or even any title, I immediately realized that those few lines would fit the music almost perfectly. So, I set her words to my notes, finished the work, titled it THE FRUITS OF SILENCE, and through good fortune had it performed in May of 1997 at the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco. I sent a recording of the performance to her, and she wrote back thanking me for it and then, early that September, she was gone.

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THE FRUITS OF SILENCE (CHORUS FOR MOTHER TERESA) Copyright©1996 DamonMusic by Sean Damon Rohde. All rights reserved

Today I present my original composition, CAT AND MOUSE.  I completed this piece in 2001 and scored it for classical guitar.  Below is a screenshot of the title page from the autograph score:

After composing this music, the apt title jumped to my mind.

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CAT AND MOUSE, Copyright©2001 DamonMusic by Sean Damon Rohde. All rights reserved

Today I present my original composition, SONG OF THE SUFFERING.  I completed this piece in 2010 and scored it for bass voice (cello) and piano.  Below is a screenshot of the title page from the autograph score:

When I look down, I see the ocean
When I look up, I see the clouds
Closing my eyes, I hear the people
Singing their last song before they die

Remember days of sun and flowers
Remember nights of myriad stars
And then the earth shuddered her great shell
And brought a whole nation tumbling to her knees

I sing a yesterday song in mourning for my lost home
I cry in sad remembrance, remembrance of my love

I scream in rage, furious at my god
Who wrecked my world, slaughtering my people
Without warning, without a sign
But only death to poor suffering people
Who simply tried to make a happier world
In the midst of strife without relief

So now I call out, cry out for grace—
Some mercy, please,
Before all of us die

***

An original song devoted to all who suffer.
Music by Sean Damon, Words by Jack Forge

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SONG OF THE SUFFERING, Copyright©2010 DamonMusic by Sean Damon Rohde. All rights reserved

Today I present my original composition, WALPURGIS NIGHT.  I completed this piece in 1999 and scored it for large orchestra.  Below is a screenshot of the title page from the autograph score:

This composition is intended to conjure the image of people dancing around a bonfire in celebration of Walpurgis Night.

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WALPURGIS NIGHT, Copyright©1999 DamonMusic by Sean Damon Rohde. All rights reserved