 Wings of the Morning
Solo Piano by Ron Thomas
Re-released in 2007 - Vectordisc 008
Original Mikrokosmos LP release MM1-002 1978
You can listen on-line to excerpts from Wings of the Morning on the Tarnius Music and CDBaby.com websites. Individual tracks are available from iTunes.
TRACK LIST
- Wings of the Morning 3:51
- Cossacks and Wolves on the Frozen River 5:22
- Orpheus 4:59
- Oostkapelle 5:20
- En Reve (Franz Liszt) 3:38
- Dusk of the Nightlands 7:15
With the exception of Franz Liszt’s En Reve, all the music is improvised. Wings of the Morning and Orpheus are the more restrained and objective pieces, while the others are poetic, subjective, rhapsodic.
I am greatly indebted to my father, Arja Worthington Thomas who taught me; it is truly his song I sing. I am deeply grateful to my friend Heath Allen for his invaluable and sensitive critical and editorial help, and for the extremely comfortable atmosphere he established for the making of this album.
—Ron Thomas
Ron's Notes:
The character of my music has always developed from a fundamentally intuitive awareness. I feel that composition is a body of knowledge, the study of specific mechanics of musical composition, while improvisation is the field of action where these principles can be drawn upon and deployed. In ordinary speech, we are generally not conscious of any separations between thinking an idea and expressing it in words. Only, in fact, when we experience difficulty in thinking clearly or expressing our thoughts in the appropriate words do we notice that they are not the same. When everything is functioning smoothly, there is a fusion of thought and expression, a natural intimacy of idea and word that generates its own logic and course of development. These principles are identical to what I would call “ordinary musical speech” where thoughts and feelings become musical ideas that in turn generate new musical patterns flowing from and into each other.
Music is, after all, a communicative process, expressing not only musical ideas but also attitudes, strengths and weaknesses of which the musician may be unaware.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. —Psalm 139:7-10
CREDITS
Heath Allen: Producer
Recording Engineer: John Anthony
Mixing Engineers: John Anthony, Ed Candelora
Cover Art: Ann Pinto (née Lowenstein)
Liner Notes: Ron Thomas and Marshall Taylor
Richard Burton: Producer
Sean Townsend: Digital transfer
Paul G. Kohler: Audio Mastering
Danny Schweers: Graphic Design
Many well deserved thanks to both Sean Townsend and Paul G. Kohler for their excellent digital audio restoration of these pieces from original analog source materials.
copyright 1978 Ron Thomas Music (ASCAP)
Vectordisc 008 • www.vectordisc.com
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