Daybreak

A musical composition of mine from 2022, followed by my original 1969 Composer’s Sketchbook version. Read the story behind the music below the videos…

The 2022 version is a bit different for me with some complex instrumental harmonies, almost discordant, and a featured saxophone solo (courtesy of my new Yamaha keyboard which provides the most organic sax I’ve ever heard).

Patrons get a free download of this one in a special post!

Here’s some background on how and why this song was produced:

As short as this is, it’s pretty intriguing with some odd harmonies that are almost discordant, similar to some of the soundtrack instrumentals in the movies Meet Joe Black and The Road To Perdition.

For some time, I’ve wanted to experiment with those kinds of sounds, but never had the proper keyboard for it.  Thanks to an unexpected cash gift from my daughter at Christmas 2022, I was finally able to buy the one I’ve had my eye on and this is the result.

Another interesting element of this instrumental is that is it from a tune I recorded on cassette more than half a century ago.  Late last year, I went through all my old tapes where I had recorded more than 500 tunes since the late 1960s.  I’ve put them all up on my YouTube channel but am planning on rerecording the best of them with today’s technology, like this one.  And in the process, I’m adding in some of the compositional sophistication I’ve picked up over the past fifty years.  For example, this song had no backing harmonies – it was just the melody line played by the piano.  It’s a good line, but when I heard it, I knew I’d like to produce it more like it sounded in my head way back when, and this is the result.

For Patrons, I’m also including a download of the original track as well so you can compare the 1969 quick sketch of a tune to the new version from 2022.

Melanie

May the Muse be with you!