https://jimhegarty.bandcamp.com/album/sonata-august-night

I guess a “sonata” is a bit lofty of a title, but in some ways that was what I was going for – a continuously developing set of movements that unfolded in a line from point A to point B.  In this case, it was a hot night late in the summer, the window air conditioner was off so I could record, and the windows were open.  The buzzing of the cicadas and street noises were in the background as I explored the musical passages that became this composition.

Summer is my favorite time, not only because it reminds me of all those years as a kid, playing music in a rock band and just hanging around.  Life was supposed to be like that forever, wasn’t it?  On the rare occasion when all the distractions of my regular life somehow get pushed aside for a little while, I can feel that same sense of freedom, the warm breeze wrapping around me and suspending me in a dream that, by rights, should never end.

This is a slow composition, I must warn you.  A pace that resulted from the quiet sounds of the city late at night when most people were somewhere else, probably asleep.  It was a slow evolution of ideas that can happen when the world has turned off for awhile and the rush of contemporary living isn’t putting a deadline on each sentence or thought.

This is music of melodies.   The second track is primarily for the right hand alone.  Lines following upon line, in the quiet consciousness of time in the slow motion of early morning.  Union Avenue, outside my windows, falls nearly silent after 1 AM.  There is a calm beauty in this kind of space and time that the high energy of daylight can never comprehend.  But if you are like me, you know what I’m talking about.

1:  Crosswalk  (11:42)

2:  Darkened Windows  (11:00)

3:  Nocturne  (9:40)

4:  Silent Street  (11:42)

5:  Early  (7:36)