On November 20, 2001 WordArtisan released two new PK projects, In The Quiet Hours and Cinemascapes. Here's a stroke by stroke of In The Quiet Hours!

Key:
[SL] = Still Life; [BR] = Brushstrokes; [SP] = Splash; [EB] = Electric Blue; [MtPB] = Music To Paint By;
[M&M] = The Master and the Musician; [TWatW] = The Wind & the Wheat

In The Quiet Hours
-- by Andy Luddy

Growing Grass [SL] – A really good piece of music, but I have three minor complaints: 1) As neat a song as this is should be longer so we can hear more of it; 2) The title doesn't seem to fit with the song. The music is driving, forceful, and almost aggressive, whereas grass growing is seen as passive and boring (in the sense of “like watching grass grow”); and 3) as an “intro” piece, it doesn't pair well with the following song. I need to listen to the transition into The Way of a Painter from Still Life to see if it worked better there, but it doesn't meld well into the slow jazz style of ItQH here IMO. But I do like it otherwise.

In the Quiet Hours [Sp] – I just noticed reading the credits that the sax on this song is Kirk Whalum, as in (very likely) the Kirk Whalum on whose album “Christmas Message” I just noticed yesterday Phil plays on. I sense a connection! I also sense that “Christmas Message” is likely to be smooth jazz with an emphasis on saxophone (as is this song), which is a Good Thing IMO.

Vermilion Sands [EB] – Has a Wind and the Wheat-era sort of sound to it. But more jazz influenced. The melody reminds me of Daisy Jane by America. If you don't hear it, try singing “Flying me back to Memphis” with that acoustic lead and you'll see what I mean.

Waterfall [SL] – If you think of the creek at Wintergreen Gorge by Behrend College instead of Niagara Falls, then the waterfall image goes well with this song. Periods of soft, gently flowing melody, interspersed with bursts of increased energy. Those if you who have never seen Wintergreen Gorge (and you don't know what you're missing) can insert the woodsy stream of your choice, provided there are trees, rocks, water, and the occasional short falls.

Blue Room [EB] – Pop this one onto the contemporary light jazz album of your choice. It'll fit in just fine. Which I guess was the target audience for the MtPB disks.

Foreshadow [Sp] – I have always found this song very effective. The name is perfect; the haunting tones engender a sense of anticipation, which is as it should be. Unfortunately, there are two songs on Splash that are essentially the same: Foreshadow and Memory. Foreshadow leads in to Phantasy (just as it does here), while Memory leads in to Shades of Green. I like Phantasy and everything, but Shades of Green is very probably my favorite song in the whole MtPB series. So when Foreshadow leads in to the “wrong” song, I'm always a tad disappointed.

Phantasy [Sp] – This is a beautiful song, which is to be expected from a composer as admired as Ralph Vaughn Williams. I remember here on the list at some time in the past that Phil had recorded a RVW tune, yet couldn't include it on the album that was forthcoming (220?) for copyright reasons. Was this the song? I don't know that it would have fit well on 220 (IMO), but then again, I feel the same way about "Tennessee Morning".

Editor's Note: Yes, this is the song left off 220.

The Black Forest [Br] – Wow! I don't recall liking this song nearly as much before (in fact, I hardly remember it at all). It has a sort of Bluegrass tone, with a haunting undercurrent. It puts me in mind of the Allegheny Mountains. Hey Neal, think of driving home at night anywhere near the Allegheny River in spring, when the thick fog rolls in, and your driving over densely wooded hills with about 100’ of visibility in any direction. This captures it perfectly.

Floating on Ice [Sp] – I can't quite explain it, but this sounds kind of “dark” to me. Probably the bass and percussion, esp. that sharp “crack” that repeats. Other than that, the acoustic sounds sort of like some slow noodling off of Acoustic Sketches. But the overall effect is somehow different.

The Apprentice [Sp] – This has an M&M sound to it in my book. Very familiar sound, but I can't tag it to a specific song. Perhaps someone else can.

As it is in Heaven – The only completely new cut on this CD, it has a sort of WBH feel to it, donut you think? The song is dedicated to Matt McPherson and played on a McPherson acoustic guitar. Is there a connection, do you suppose?

Note for the guitar challenged (like me): The McPherson Guitars site (http://www.mcphersonguitars.com) explains that the McPherson guitar utilizes an offset sound hole “to deliver crisp highs and a rich, resonant, more powerful bottom”.

The Way of a Painter (2nd Movement) [SL] - This sounds familiar somehow. Like something on TWatW, maybe?

Spencer's Dream [Br] (as “A Painter's Dream”) – We should all be familiar by now of the renaming of this tune, which, I might point out, automatically makes any discussion of Spencer on-topic on the Keaggy list (Am I right? Of course I am).

The Blue Planet [SL] – A kind of spacey sounding tune (appropriately enough). There's a lot going on in this song. It reminds me or Kerry Livgren's instrumental work; not in sound or style, but in, call it density. It the amount of things happening during the song.

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Page Last Updated: December 15, 2001