A photograph of myself, my sister, Mary Ruth, and my mother, about one year before Mary Ruth’s death.
I wrote this Psalm Offering for my sister, Mary Ruth, in 1988, 11 years before her death from Chrones Disease. I thought for some time that I had lost this music I had composed for her as a birthday present. Fortunately, I had made a rudimentary recording of the music and was prepared to reconstruct the entire score from that recording, a painstakingly slow process of listening, writing, listening and writing. It is a short piece of music, just 3 pages in length. I was surprised and greatly delighted to find in a bin of music, the first and third page of her music. Though I still had to listen to the recording to reconstruct the missing middle page, I was greatly relieved to have finally had her music back in entirety.
About the music: It is written very simply, in two part, AB form. It is in the key of F major. For some reason F major has a sonority that does not resemble any other key. There is a deep richness to that key that I have used in only 3 Psalm Offerings; Psalm Offering 6, Opus 1 (for Ruthie), this Psalm Offering, and the one that will be following this, Psalm Offering 4, Opus 4 (for David Waite).
