Here’s my setting of Flann O’Brien’s poem “The Workman’s Friend,” from At Swim-Two-Birds, with viola and tuba accompaniment. Stirring, I hope.

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Here, if anyone’s interested, is an alphabetical list of the rounds I’ve written. The Animals The Bigot Blackwell’s Isle Captain Manning’s Catch A Christmas Song Common Sense Ding Dong Bell (Percy Bysshe Shelley) Dr. Quack (verses from a card game) Election Day (William Butler Yeats) Fundamentalists Give Me Clouds! (Remy de Gourmont) Government Without Religion […]

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Christmas is over, but the holidays are still with us. Be careful.

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At a recent reading/slideshow of selections from The Unknown Adjective, I performed a musical version of the last page.  Ralph Hamperian played the tuba.  

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I had forgotten about these two short pieces for flute, ‘cello, and piano, written for my composition class at Oberlin Conservatory, back in 1972.  They seemed lively enough to keep, so I made a legible copy from the penciled antique.

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A little song about guns: in the first verse, Fred’s son shoots himself; in the second, Fred shoots his wife; and in the third, the singer suggests that Fred shoot himself, so we’ll be rid of him. The son of a bitch.

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This melancholy little piece features the Tremoloa, a curious instrument once made by the Manufacturers Advertising Company, which has a single slack string played with a steel bar. On its first performance, I was joined by David Gold on viola, Ralph Hamperian on tuba, and Doug Roesch on guitar.

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I don’t want to be the pope in Rome, Sitting underneath Saint Peter’s dome. When the cardinals come knocking, Then I guess that I’ll start locking My door, and send those hopeful clerics home. That’s the first of four verses; the accompaniment is slated for viola and tuba, but here it is in a form […]

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