Twisty, Curvy Roads

Here is an arrangement for strings of a Welsh folk song. It was popular for barn dances. Score and parts available here

Beginning at around the age of 12 or 13, peer group begins to take over from the parents as the major influencer in the lives of children. It is a period of experimentation and testing of rules. It is natural and the same type of behavior can be found in herd animals such as elk and buffalo where the adolescents, especially males, leave the herd and gather together on their own.  When I was a high school band director, I understood that this was a natural tendency and became very good at recruiting 6th graders to join my band! I also understood that it is super important to have rules. Kids are going to experiment, and it is better to have clear-cut and unambiguous rules with clearly spelled out and consistently delivered consequences. The kids are going to test the rules and the teacher or the parent had better be prepared to follow through with consequences. Otherwise, all hell will break loose! What we are seeing today is a consequence of the Great Society experiment of the '60s...

  The Caliph is a four movement orchestral suite! This project began simple enough, but as I worked, it expanded! I began to listen carefully to what I had written, and, as I did, I saw visual images began to take place in my imagination. I realized that I wanted a larger pallet and so expanded, not the length, but the vision. The visual that I have is a set from the Arabian Nights! An isolated palace beside an oasis in the desert. In the distance, a caravan approaches the palace. As the caravan approaches the gates to the palace courtyard, a fanfare announces its arrival. The gates swing open and a marvelous procession enters the courtyard. The tension builds as the procession nears the great hall of the palace. No one knows why this powerful ruler has chosen to come to this isolated spot. Everyone is wondering if this event presents a danger! The piece comes to a dramatic end just as the Caliph arrives at the main hall of the palace. I used perfect intervals and a heavy percussio...

 The Constitution does not define when "Personhood" begins. So, in a legal sense, if a person does not exist until the moment of birth, then Hillary Clinton is correct when she denies that a child still in the womb has any "Constitutional Rights". However, for most non-Democrats, this is an ethical question, not a legal question. If we ask, "Should society protect children who are still in the womb?", most non-Democrats will answer, "Certainly!". We may go on to discuss specific and possible extenuating circumstances, but in general, non-Democrats agree that the human potential of a child in the womb deserves society's consideration, care, and protection. Democrats, on the other hand, subscribe to an ethical view that the powerful have the right of life or death over the powerless. Democrats are perfectly OK with the ethical proposition that adults are entirely within their right to make a life or death decision regarding the powerless child....

Here is a little reminder of Mardi Gras!

 

We have been taught that there are four branches of government, but that is not true! In reality, although not outlined in the Constitution there is a fourth branch. It is the bureaucracy, also known as "The Swamp"!  The bureaucracy, as has been clearly demonstrated during the last four years, controls a great deal of power. In fact, It can easily be argued that today, the bureaucracy is more powerful than any of the three legitimate branches of government. That is the first of my concerns with the popular call for "term limits". In any new job, there is a learning curve. During that learning curve, it is common for the new employee to lean heavily on the "staff" and take cues from them. If term limits are imposed, that will mean that the number of elected officeholders who are in the early stage of the learning cycle will increase. Would that not mean that the "staff", who are employees and not elected by the people, would have more power? My s...