ICONS by paul mulcahy

When I composed, I had in mind that a piece of music should have a distinctive unique sound or it either wasn’t worth composing or it wasn’t finished.

I think my rudimentary musical knack gets strangled by the brilliant minds who insist the great talents of this generation in the conservatories, abandon harmony and melody and drills to produce compositions. THE EASY FUN WAY. That’s right. Making up music like this album is easy. Not a frustrating problem. And I’m not the most refined technician like the composing students in the conservatories. I had few lessons. I hate to admit it because I’ve taught at least 10,000 piano lessons. I never tried to fool anybody. I told them I didn’t come from a conservatory. Well I worked in one, but I didn’t want to pay money I didn’t have to jump through hoops I didn’t like to compose music that is dissonant din. I would have been disqualified for playing with harmony and melody.

My big question is: Why, if the music is interesting to live audiences of the proletariat why does classical music radio, public radio, only give airtime to the dead guys? As one gate keeper said, “ We don’t present music composed by…..’PEOPLE!’ “

Oh. (dejectedly) “people” she actually said. Maybe someone smelled beer on my breath in 1996. Disqualified for life. That’s why they don’t listen. No one ever smelled beer on Mozart’s breath. Or Beethoven’s. Do you know anybody that did? Nobody.

If this music wasn’t disqualified by experts, then maybe the young talents who compose music these days could be bringing new music to public radio. Instead, the gatekeepers of

classical music maintain a stranglehold on creativity, so that it is inaccessible to “PEOPLE’. Maybe I’m right or maybe I just have a psychological problem and I don’t recognize it, but I listen to public radio, or I used to, and I never hear any body’s new work in the daytime. O.K. John Rutter. (he’s great)

I agree this album is not the greatest performance of fluent technique. It is just a sampler for ice skaters and people that might hire a recital. Also I hoped to interest some figure skaters who might take the music to the Olympic Games, but it did get to a lower level national championship.

When I listened to the new composers forums and the other music composed in the 1900’s I thought there is a great musical disease that has spread over the world that has corrupeted harmony and melody. All the wise men praised the ugly din.

Is my music just another spin off of Handel, Beethoven.. ?? Really? Please tell me which piece it spins from. This album was 1995. I have been at it 10 years since, but because the battle to introduce new recorded music to old ears has resulted in a stalemate, I will be picking out a lead on my guitar. Its only the recorded music that stalls out. Live audiences have enjoyed hundreds of performances in the Washington D.C. area.

This is not the beginning of the story. Flash back in time, where else... the third floor of the old uninhabited wing of a ... you guessed it...a Benedictine Abbey, Where rise ceaselessly the mystical chant of praises to the Lord God Almighty .

So way back in the 1900’s (1980 to be exact) what was a 22 year old fresh college graduate doing in a decrepit deserted wing of the monks' dormitory?

A) Trying to find God.

B) Trying to escape from God.

C) Taking a short cut through a trap set by the Lord.

D) Tormento!! Confusion!!

E) All of the above.

Answer is E.

Fast and pray. Pray and fast. What short cut? That took two years. Where are all the miracle workers? Why is my Bible full of action heroes, earth shaking people turning things upside down.

Catholic.

Pay.

Pray.

Obey.

Every Day.

Stay.

outta the way

OK!!!!

YAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY !!!!!!!!!

I'm not mocking. This works great !!! If you have the Holy Spirit you just want more and more and the only thing you will want is to rise from the dead. The best church is empty. EMPTY. and if you are lucky you are inside and the doors are locked and you are the only one in it then you can talk to the LORD and wait. YAYYY!!! Waiting. WAITING. We WANT TO WAIT!!! We? Who is we? Well, Michelle Wie is pretty, but Paul you are a………….I am not a loner. I am a soloist!

God is a Ghost. Never Sleeps. Can probe every idea that crosses a crooked mind and straighten it all out.

Cut the autobiography and back to this ALBUM!! ICONS!…remember!!

This music. It's noise. I like silence. But living sort of monkish, and not wanting to beg, my goal was to work at the craft of music all day and call it a days work. I didn't have any money and i didn't like the din that the modern composers are making. If you don't know what I am talking about go to a composer's forum. One professor that was talking about composing said "you don't compose with your HANDS!" He didn't know anything about my work. I compose with my hands. All the time. This whole album of ICONS was composed with my hands. All the tracks are one take from beginning to end.

I worked on the Black Madonna for years. Queen of the Ukraine took about 45 minutes to rough out. I was really fascinated by Oksana Baiul snatching the gold medal in the 1994 Olympics so charmingly from out of nowhere. The Queen of the Ukraine is really in honor of he Blessed Virgin Mary and was sparked into creation one morning after hearing the Red Army choir sing Polushka Pole' (Polay). The piece on this CD is the result of a year of refinement. I hoped this piece of music would make it to the Olympic Games.

I was so excited to introduce this piece of music to the great ice skaters who trained in the United States. I was working at a church in Connecticut and i travelled 45 minutes to the rink where Oksana Baiul and Viktor Petrenko were training. WOW! the first people i saw were Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov. WOW! they were on color TV!! and now they're right in front of me. I had the score for Queen of the Ukraine right in my hand. On the front was a picture of a Russian ICON in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus. Under the picture were the Russian letters that spelled out... Krev Krista Spassee Nas. Translated that means Blood of Christ Save Us. All the kids were flocking to Sergei Grinkov with pens and paper, looking for autographs. I could see he thought i was looking for an autograph. I never was an autograph kind of guy. I said to him, " hard work being a star huh?" He was nice and he replied "yes." while he kept giving autographs. I didn't want to bother him more.

Wish i did.

Soon Oksana Baiul and Viktor Petrenko came along. I tried to show them the score of this music that I thought they would really like to try in their program. I know, because i was out on the ice myself a lot of times and when I was realy tired this piece of music would come along on the tape and all of a sudden I had tons of energy. Well maybe they don't measure energy in tons, but i could really surge. In any case, when Viktor Petrenko and Oksana Baiul saw the musical score that i was trying to show them, they just snatched it out of my hand and signed their names right where it says Blood of Christ Save Us. Can this ever get in the Olympic Games.

Spoeceba. Dahzvidanyea.

Living in the Washington D.C. area I have accumulated quite a few students.

Since I work out on the ice myself, many of the piano students have been ice skaters. One girl used the Queen of the Ukraine when she was little as a two minute program, then later 2:30 and later she won a national championship from her dual citizenship in Puerto Rico and the U.S.

The piece Notre Dame started from an idea of Puccini and some influence of Chopin's E minor concerto.

For an ice skater in D spun all the way off of Pachelbel's Canon into something that most ears would find unrelated all the way into uniquity. I sat at the piano with an ice skating coach and went over the themes. It has to be cut for a program because it is too long.

The Rain Is pouring/Mozart 40th are two themes that have the somber G minor in common. They work well in recital together.

One take in Dflat was a "name that tune" piece at recitals, because i couldn't name the piece that the theme came from. Finally when i did realize where i got the idea, Warsaw Concerto, I listened to the original work and it doesn't really sound like my One Take in D flat.

The Grieg piano concerto is on the disk because I like it. Its very beautiful and i wish i could play it masterfully. I have played it hundreds of times in the Washington D.C. area. Sometimes I have aced it.

In the beginning the pieces on this diskwere sent around hoping to get recital opportunities. I don't think I have had much response to the CD at all. But I have had hundreds of recitals at retirement campuses, assisted living centers and nursing homes.

I have a score for the Black Madonna piano concerto that weighs about 15 pounds for all the orchestral instruments. It was held hostage by one orchestra for several months. After a long standoff, I finally got it back. One high school tried to play it. But they filled in the French

horns part with saxophoness and it was all too weak. I didn't give up trying to get it performed, but afte a while so many students started to fill up my time, i haven't been able to push it.

In 1997 tendonitis forced me to do right-handed recitals and sing, just to keep the low key, low fee appointed dates. Depressing. In 1998 good news my left hand was coming back. Bad news. My right hand had tendonitis creeping in. Sing some more. Depressing, but not so bad.

One's mind gets tougher.

The piece Cafe Mozart was composed in about 45 minutes just before I dashed down to the only piano playing job I had at a regular public place. Cafe Mozart. I was supposed to be there every Thursday at 6 o'clock. My hand was getting sore in 1996 with tendonitis. Later I learned

it is called DeQuervain's tendonitis. It runs along the thumb. After a while you just have to stop using it. I wrote this little piece so that them might have a little sentimental attatchment to me and when i went home to Michigan i could come back to Cafe Mozart and still have my job. They let me go. I thought it my be because it was only a few blocks from the White House and maybe Bill Clinton didn't want someone mentioning Blessed Virgin Mary in the neighborhood.

I played at the Kennedy Center Audition for the Millenium Stage. I had composed a special piece for the audition. My main presentation for that audition (when they used to listen to auditions) is on the web page PaulMulcahy.com. It was a piano version of the button for

American Anthem. Anyway they didn't like something. One of the judges looked a little cockeyed at me when i played Cafe' Mozart and said in a questioning tone of voice "You

composed that?" Those were the words, but my paranoid mind always remembers.."(are you trying to tell us) You composed that?" Uh, Yup. That's what I do. All day. Every Day.

No payday. Is that OK?

This CD is more of a souvenier of a crude beginning than it is a collection of piano repertoire masterfully produced and organized. Much more repertoire is yet unrecorded but used in many recitals. There are musical scores for Queen of Poland, Queen of the Ukraine, the Black

Madonna Piano concerto for piano and orchestra. Most of the music is employed only in live performance. It is quite difficult to get volunteers to play the written scores. Strangely, the audience reaction to singing seems more enthusiastic than just piano repertoire lately. My

callouses from guitar are growing thick and my interest in electronic keyboard orchestration is growing. You can find some of that on the links on this page.

I have sold these CD's on Ebay. At the moment of inspiration and creation, I was always sure these pieces would quickly be a popular item. I don't know why many places hire me, and i don't know why some of them don't. More than once i have wanted to apologize to one of the

admistrators who hired me, after i gave a poor performance. To my surprise I'm soon asked to get my calendar and then they put me down for 3 or 4 more dates. On the other hand

sometimes I never hear again from the place where i aced a concert. And still if there are any directors to whom I owe an apology. I'm sorry. Thanks for the check too.

I know the difference.

I'm a strong improviser. In other words, I can wing it. I'm not a great reader. Sometimes i can get by with enough pressure on me. I practise and practise and practise, but i put a picture in front of me or just do my drills. If I'm in love.. that makes a new composition happen quickly.

Most of these pieces were caused by that.

The great ICONS of art history were anonymous. I get the feeling some people would like to make these compositions anonymous from me. Well what do i know anyway.

Jesus Christ raises the dead. The world is full of Good and Evil. The Great Day is coming. God knows it. I left out a lot of importand stuff. I don't know how to tell it, but it might be that when i was stupid and poor, that was when i was wise and rich. God showed me some things.

Camille Saint Saens said to his copyist... "come on.. they don't want to listen here.. we'll find

where they want to listen."

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