Two pieces by Paul Rudy

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Love Song

Love Song (2003) is about the desert. Wind, water, gravity, light and time are powerful forces that have shaped the desert, and serve as potent symbols for me. Wind (breath) and water are physical needs humans cannot live without, while gravity and time (experience and maturity) are the emotional and psychological components that shape individual lives. Light bridges the physical, emotional and spiritual in its life-sustaining energy and power. Sensations inspired by the desert are complex and difficult to describe, so it was with delight that I read Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire while travelling through the Utah desert in 2003. His poetic descriptions are poignant, eloquent, and as beautiful as the places he paints with words. Love Song is a journey to re-claim light, beauty and love out of the dark, weathered places we sometimes finding ourselves without knowing how we got there. I am forever indebted to Abbey for the courage to speak his heart, and to Kim Erndt for her voice and ideas.

An extract of the Text:

The wind will not stop.
     Gusts of sand swirl before me, stinging my face.
But there is still too much to see and marvel at,
     the world very much alive in the bright light and wind,
     exultant with the fever of spring, the delight of morning.

Text: Edward Abbey from Desert Solitaire, Permission by Clarke Abbey for use in the piece

November Sycamore Leaf

(first release)
In December of 2003, a friend sent me a Christmas Card with a photograph called November Sycamore Leaf by Missouri Photographer John Hess. The moment I slid the card out of the envelope sound literally exploded in my head. The bright orange leaf leapt off the card and into my sonic imagination, and as my eyes dug into the details of the image, the music made itself heard before my very eyes. Two years later, in a small cabin high in the Rocky Mountains with no running water but a fantastic view and quietness, the concentration of the photograph bore itself out in the composition of the music, and November Sycamore Leaf came to life over a three day period. I composed a video based on the single photograph of Hess in December of 2006. The video, like the music, explores the intricate structure of the leaf, and my perception of the leaf as it unfolded on first seeing. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…and to see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." (Thoreau) November Sycamore Leaf won 1st Prize in the Sounds Electric ’07, Dublin, Ireland.

Brief Biography:

Paul Rudy (1962) is a Rome Prize (2010), Guggenheim (2008), Fulbright (1997) and Wurlitzer Foundation (2007 and 2009) Fellow. He has won the Sounds Electric ’07 Competition (1st Prize), EMS Prize (Sweden 1st Prize), Citta di Udine (Prize ex aequo), and has received recognition and commissions from IMEB, Bourges (2008 commission), SEAMUS, Meet the Composer, the American Composer’s Forum, SCI, National Music Teacher’s Association . He teaches at the University of Missouri at Kansas City where he received the 2008 Kauffman Award for Artistic Excellence. In 1994 he completed the Colorado Grand Slam after climbing all 54 of Colorado's 14,000 ft peaks. That goal completed…his current goal is to enjoy surfing the unknown and catch all the things he missed getting to all those summits… Rudy’s 2012 Stories are available online at iTunes, and also in live performance. Visit: www.paulrudy.com for more information or Facebook (Paul Rudy and MotherEarths Voice) and myspace.com/twistedtrailmusic. CD’s are available at aucourantrecords.com.

Notes by Paul Rudy.

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