Sweet, Sweet Memories for four percussionists (Xylophone, Vibraphone and Marimba - two players) was completed in 2004. It was premiered in São Paulo, Brazil, at the "2° Encontro Internacional de Percussão" by the PIAP, Grupo de Percussao do Instituto de Artes da UNESP (Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de MesquitaFilho, Campus de São Paulo), in September of 2005 under the direction of American percussionist John Boudler. Shortly thereafter the music was choreographed for the "Iadança” dance group of the same institution.

            Structurally Sweet, Sweet Memories is a set of variations and a fantasy on a theme by the “Easy Riders” (Gilkyson, Dehr and Miller) – “Memories are Made of This” (1955). The variations begin well before the theme is "born" and, following one complete statement,  gradually depart further and further from the original organization of the material leading ultimately in a dream-like fantasy to it's gradual disintegration. Emotionally Sweet, Sweet Memories is a full scale "tone poem" for mallet instruments which, taking it's cue from the song's "story line" outlining a lifetime of domestic family bliss, uses the repetition, fragmentation and harmonic re-ordering of the song's melodic material to trace its own joyful musical story of continuous motivic growth until the music’s “life cycle” has matured and crystallized in time as ...... "memories".

Sweet, Sweet Memories: Mp3(11 MB, Complete performance)

   Originally composed in 1973 (under the title of Suite for harpsichord and stereo tape), the tape portion of this work was remastered in 2003 (the original tape material was still in existence) using computer programs to enhance the fidelity and precision of the original mix. Structurally the pre-recorded material was left relatively untouched with the exception of the addition of a minute of material in the last movement. The harpsichord part, on the other hand, was modified considerably and an extensive Cadenza was introduced between the second and third movements of the original version creating, in effect, a four movement work. In 2007 the harpsichord part was further modified and the dynamic balances within the pre-recorded sound were adjusted accordingly.

   Although the original version of this work was played frequently in the 1970's and '80's - most particularly by the Italian harpsichordists Mariolina De Robertis to whom the work is dedicated and by Paola Bernardi who frequently assigned it to her students, it has since fallen out of use. Part of this has to do with changes in musical tastes, but part, I believe, also had to do with unresolved problems within the composition itself. The present version - which assigns a greater role to the solo harpsichord and places it within a more spectacular "theatrical framework" provided by the pre-recorded sound - has, I hope, struck a satisfactory balance between the harpsichord soloist and the pre-recorded sounds, between Scarlatti's music and the 'musique concrète' manipulation thereof and, if you will, between thought expressed as logical progression or as dream-like fantasy - the mix of which suggested the new title: "Dialogo tra ragione e follia".

Suite: "Dialogo tra ragione e follia" Mp3 (16MB, Complete performance)