Description for “My Bird is Singing”

Pug- Wuddy- Wuddle (For Thimble)

Range C to E

This fun song is about a little dog who loves to splash and to sing when he finds a laughing flea! It features clapping, snapping, or tapping by the singer and pianist as well as spoken syllables with the fun words “wuddy-wuddle”! Level 2

Sometimes in the Dark

Range C to F (soprano)

A very lyrical song set to the ambiguous words “Sometimes you can hear more clearly in the dark.” Level 3

I love the Wind’s Song (available in 3 keys)

A major Range D to G (soprano)

G major Range C to F (mezzo-soprano)

F major Range Bb to Eb (contralto)

This beautifully lyrical song features many rising and falling intervals of 4ths. Level 4

Lost and Found

A beautiful poem of Love that lies “balanced between hope and loneliness” portrayed by a major/minor/major melody that expresses the surprises that Love may bring to all of us.

How the Leaves Play

Primarily based on a pentatonic scale with fluttering grace notes in the piano accompaniment, this poem portrays Leaves Playing, “seemingly happy, unknowing their freedom will make them die.”

Raindrops – Teardrops

Raindrops and Teardrops are represented by many falling 3rds and aspirated “p’s” as in drop-p-p-p, accompanied by a beautiful shimmering textured piano accompaniment.

Let us Leave behind this Day

This song was written Jan.6, 2024, after hearing of the unexpected demise of the poet, Robert Greenwood, who wrote this mature poem: “Let us snore our way toward death… and leave no sound, no footprint…” It ends with a beautiful melisma that weaves melodically with the piano.

There was a Time

This uplifting and nostalgic song is the longest (8 pages) in the collection. “There was a time when people loved, people were missed. There was a place of earth where people hugged, were full of mirth. There was the earth, it had a face, a place of grace for every race.” This folk-like waltz Refrain is contrasted with “But now the times have changed, and people seek and try to blame.” The Refrain returns with words of hope “to feel the spirits heal the earth…”

Mister Tree

This song portrays and ancient tree who “stood looking at the anguished angles of his people’s minds. He stood here, gnarled but not broken.” It uses onomatopoeic consonants in words like “cracking cracking crevices” and “the licking licking liquored glames.”

My Bird is Singing

The title song for this book is based on a lovely poem about the joys of singing. “Forget your wounds, open your ears, hear your eyes see, open your mouths and sing and sing!” This song develops flexibility in the voice with many 16th note melismas imitating the song of birds.

Ghosts fog the Mountains

This is the most challenging and contemporary piece in the collection, featuring many upward vocal glissandi spanning intervals of 7ths accompanied by piano tremolos and strumming the strings inside the piano. This creates a mystical aura of “snow sugared evergreens weaving faded tapestries among the pinecones.”