Encounters With the Moon

My piano sits by a large floor to ceiling window. Up late, or unable to sleep, so many of my musical pieces - especially solo piano - were composed past midnight and often within site of the moon. On some nights it was the moon alone that lit the piano. The moon was my companion, beautiful, balanced and encouraging. And so Encounters with the Moon seemed an apt title for my first solo piano album.

I love all these pieces and there is a story behind each of them. But I’ll speak of three in particular.

When I play A Winter Song, I certainly can visualize a cozy fire, a book-filled library, perhaps snow on the ground. But the piece has a deeper meaning for me as well. In this ‘song,’ I sing of a later time in life, in many ways a more peaceful and satisfying time in life, not without all regret or pain, but more than simply reconciled – in short, A Winter Song.

A person may feel inadequate, hopelessly inept, unattractive, unworthy. And he or she simply cannot believe how their partner sees them in such a wonderfully different light. I may feel ugly, but In Her Eyes I am beautiful.

Finally, March may come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, but I think the month of April can be far more complicated from day to day. And there is a girl I know and love who is every bit as complicated, an insightful and beautiful soul, but suffering deeply from many demons. She is sometimes whole and sometime broken. And whether, complete or separated, there are Pieces of April we can never fully understand.

- George David Kieffer