Where the Fish Are now available on Bandcamp!

Born in 1955 in Mt. Vernon Ohio, the same hometown as Daniel Decatur Emmett, the composer of the song, “Dixie.” I am honored to have this in common with Dan. I see him as a similar kind of composer, what we might call a tunesmith. If this is an accurate label I’m honored because, for me, there’s nothing in this world like a memorable and expressive melody.

As to my approach, once I’ve played myself into a mood or a mode with an instrument, with any luck I’m subject to inspiration. Some of these directives are clear right away, others take decades to decipher. Some are ambitious as to the amount of stylization, others are not. And of course, any flaws or gaps in the process are my own. That said, my goal is the old-fashioned aesthetic bliss …a sense of being somehow, somewhere connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm.
—Vladimir Nabokov, “On a book entitled Lolita” often referred to by Vladimir Nabokov. Otherwise, why bother?

I settled into RI for good in 1984 and began composing soon after. I have a respectable body of work: two operas, a couple of concertos both commissioned, a cantata that was commissioned, a string quartet that won an award in 2006.

Where the Fish Are

"Where The Fish Are is a wonderful album! Profoundly unique and inspirational to my senses which happens very rarely. You have a gift for good melody and an essence of creative magic, again rare."

—Cliff Stapleton
composer and master of the hurdy-gurdy

Back in 2016 it occurred to me that I would make a record of the small-scale pieces I’ve written over the last fifteen or twenty years. Working with Joe Auger of QORQ Productions, we first recorded a total of twenty-three foundation tracks with violinist Laura Gulley and cellist Rob Bethel. As most of my textures are three-voiced, Laura competed this initial layer with viola on the middle line. From there, adding what seemed like countless overdubs we worked to complete the sound and clarify the intention of each tune. With the songs, for the most part the vocalists were there from the beginning, an integral part of creating the mood and tempo. An epic endeavor, the project was finally complete in early 2020.

Click for few notes for each track:

  1. Lydian Lady (2010): Clearly in the Lydian mode, utilizes the Bosch Hurdy-Gurdy along the way.
  2. Bones Alley (2016): This melody starts as a minor variation on a major mode English traditional melody (Striped Pajamas), but quickly goes in different directions.
  3. Pastoral #9 (2014): “Love’s doves wing” yeah? One element of this song is a melody by James Joyce, “The Ballad of Percee O’Reilly” (Finnegans Wake p. 44).
  4. O’Reilly's Waltz (2013): A melody that starts off fairly conventionally, but goes in some surprising directions.
  5. Wolfgang (2015): I think this a good melody for a child’s nightlight carousel. In any case we hear the Bosch HG in the process.
  6. Sur Richelieu (1998): A very simple tune I like so much, I’ve twice gone to the trouble of recording it in the studio.
  7. Clownfish (2013): Part clown, part fish: that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
  8. Edgewise (2008): I did a sojourn near Tucson, Arizona in 2004 and this song reflects that.
  9. Angel Waltz (2017): A melody I had in my files for probably twenty years before it finally came together.
  10. Newfield (1997): What is there to say about this tune?
  11. What Remains? (2008): Robert Graves has said that the primary task of the poet is to contemplate what remains of the beloved once the beloved has gone. I chose to take him at his word pretty directly. The musical setting was inspired by the call and response singing I’ve heard over the years at the different incarnations of vielles et cornemuses festivals in Quebec.
  12. WTF (2014): An attempt to make a melody comprised of entirely modal shapes.
  13. Unlooked 4 (2007): The years 2006 and 2007 were a time of nearly unprecedented creativity and inspiration for me. This melody generously came along towards the end of that phase, indeed unexpected. Portions of this piece served as the foundation for an aria in Melusine.
  14. Chartres (2008): The text was composed during a tour of Brittany in the summer of 1994, the music arrived many years later in a flash of inspiration.
  15. Mes Longs Cheveux (2008): At the beginning of the second half of Debussy’s “Peleas” opera, Melisande sings an unaccompanied melody, “Mes longs cheveux.” I utilized that melody to make this dance.
  16. Bee Industries (2006): Don’t you love programmatic titles?
  17. St. Francis (2004): Written in Lincoln Woods RI at my friend Winnie’s house after I got back from Tucson (see “Edgewise”). Based on an actual bird-call.
  18. Hunters Moon (2008): Written on the October full moon (Hunter’s Moon) that year, this is my homage to the blind Irish harper/composer Turlough O’Carolan.
  19. Tempest Waltz (1997): This tune and the following written for the Pan-Twilight Circus, a circus-theatre project originating in Oregon in 1990, but then had two or three incarnations in Providence, RI during the 90s.
  20. Ives Jive (1995): A quodlibet containing Schubert’s Trout melody, the traditional British Grenadiers and the Ode to Joy melody by Beethoven.
  21. Heather Lane (2008): The street where the family home was located back in Medina Ohio, it seemed like a good name for a fiddle tune as well.
  22. Fortune, My Friend (2015): The music is an attempt to imagine what choices Paul McCartney would make if he wrote a fiddle tune. The title is a response to the English hanging-song, “Fortune, My Foe.”
  23. Where the Fish Are (2009): The text is a self-portrait in middle-age, but using colors and imagery reminiscent of my father, Carl F. Jobe (1930-2000) whom I really came to know when he was middle-aged. Not sure if that makes sense, but there it is.

Joan of Arc

(1993)

I’d been fascinated by Joan of Arc all my life, and when I read a book about her by Marina Warner in the late 80s (Joan of Arc/Images of Female Heroism), I was provided a strong point of departure: Joan’s visions. Knowing exactly what language will inspire the deepest and most consistent inspiration, I wrote a three-act libretto beginning in 1990 utilizing largely the fixed forms (but in English): rondeau, ballade and virelai. Working off and on for the next few years I completed the music in 1993. The first production was at Bell St. Chapel in Providence RI in May of 1993. Most all of my friends and colleagues showed up to help out, and it was one of the peak experiences of my life. You can hear audio samples from that and the subsequent productions (1997 and 2010) at www.joanofarcopera.com

The Legend of the Fairy Melusine

(2014)

Melusine images by Amy Webb-Brown.

I have also been inspired by the story of Melusine, a fairy who shape shifts once a week into half-woman, half-serpent. In 2007, I produced a show in Providence for the FirstWorks Festival entitled Music for Three Hurdy-Gurdies, featuring the traditional hurdy-gurdy, plus two large scale wheel-fiddle instruments I designed. It was at that point I realized I had sufficient materials to provide for a second opera, and I set about researching further into Melusine. It was during that phase I made the acquaintance of Dr. Matthew Morris, professor emeritus of French literature at Emory University in Georgia. Having read his modern English translation of the Jean d’Arras version of the Melusine legend, I contacted him and showed him the first act of the libretto. He was interested and supportive such that he attended one of the Melusine workshop productions in 2011. Sadly, he passed away before the concert production in 2014, though that performance was dedicated to him. Highlight clips from that production can be seen at www.melusineopera.com.

Coming soon...

Double Baker’s Dozen Dance Collection

I made a list of all the melodies I’ve written that have a dance disposition and it adds up to twenty-six, starting in 1984 with a simple tune called Goat Dance all the way through to the present including melodies I’ve written even since the CD was complete. Some will be in a lead sheet format, some will be scores. The graphics and drawing will be something special, the debut of a young artist with a spectacular gift.