The first few pieces that I post will be my most recent work, scores from the very top of my big cardboard box of compositions.
During 2015-2016, I spent several months at the Yasodhara Ashram in BC. One of the tangible things that I brought with me from the ashram was a copy of the Yasodhara Ashram Devotional Songbook. The largest section of the songbook contains bhajans or devotional songs. What is written down are the words, melodies, and chord symbols. For some of the songs, the composer or source is identified but many songs are anonymous. For a few, there is a little bit of explanatory text about the meaning or significance of the song. The songbooks are used every evening at Satsang.
When a bhajan is sung at a Satsang, it is normally sung several times over. It might be repeated to last as long as a ritual which it accompanies and that will vary, depending on the number of people present. Or a bhajan might go on just as long as people are enjoying singing and playing it. Most of the singers use books that contain only the words and not any musical notation. Instrumental accompaniment is optional and if there are instrumentalists involved, their parts are mostly improvised. In practice this often results in continuous variation. In some of the livelier bhajans, each repetition is sung faster than previous one until the music is "really cooking". This is a very different musical world than the one in which I usually live and work.
Adjusting back to life away from the ashram is taking some time. One of the things that is helping me to re-settle is exploring how my different musical worlds might interact. After not playing the piano for nearly a year, it felt natural to start playing with the music that was currently in my mind. Without planning to do so, I found myself integrating the bhajans I learned at the ashram with my long-time interest in composing in eighteenth century style.
Before I went to the ashram I let go of my old piano. I do not currently own any instrument but I am using a digital piano kindly lent to me by a friend. The keyboard has a number of different sounds, including a harpsichord setting which I am enjoying playing with.
So without further ado, let me introduce what may well be a brand-new musical genre: Baroque Bhajans!