St. Francis Walks at Night

 

St. Francis Walks at Night (mp3) (pdf)

Another in a series of St. Francis tunes. This one is recently composed. The photo was taken a few days ago on St. Feriole Island, part of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, at the entrance to a garden. There's a St. Feriole Island Jig coming up before too long also.

Despite my usual careful planning (just kidding) today's tune is the second blog entry in a row that is in the key of B minor and whose title ends in the words "at night." Further proof of my creative genius (kdding again). I promise the next tune I post will not be in B minor. I hope you enjoy this one though.

Snow at Night

 

Snow at Night (mp3) (pdf)

"Snow's gonna come and the frost's gonna bite, my old car froze up last night."

A beautiful summer's day here in Decorah found me digging through old music notebooks. On the first page of the book marked "January 27, 2005-July 25, 2005" I found the original version of today's tune. Back in 2005 I created a lead sheet for the tune, titled January 27, 2005, and probably shared it with Contratopia. I don't recall ever playing that early version but it's possible that we did. I've now altered the C section of the tune, changed the form a bit and given it a proper title.

I'm thinking of those nights when the snow is coming down after dark and everything in our neighborhood is very quiet. I don't remember if I started writing this tune at night but I could have. In any event, here it is in August, 15 years later.

I didn't even bother with a harmony part for this one, just a simple melody with chords.

The photo is from January 2020, looking out on our back yard. Of course when January 2021 arrives I'll be wishing it were August again.

How Many Moons

 

How Many Moons (mp3) (pdf)

How many indeed? I found this title in an old notebook with a few notes below it and turned it into a finished tune recently.

The photo above was taken near St. Luke's Church on the edge of Eitzen, MN a few days ago. I nearly stumbled on it while admiring the little park next to the church parking lot. I think it is an NGS survey marker.

Also a few days ago our Contratopia buddies Pat O'Loughlin and Margie visited Decorah while on a short camping trip. Erik Sessions and I met up with them in nearby Palisades Park and we played some tunes. Here's a video of us playing my tune "Palisades" that appears on Contratopia's first recording, Hands Four. The groove wanders a bit (this is what happens when Patrice Pakiz is not keeping us in line) but you can see it was a nice day in a lovely place.