My husband turns 61 today. Happy birthday, Ed!

And just like every year for the past 27, I composed a viola piano duet for us to play. Each one is called an Evocation.

This year’s birthday duet, Evocation XXVII, takes on a stately air, something that puts to my mind classical Americana. The melody just came to me one morning at breakfast, and I quickly sketched it in a notebook. With both Ed and I together at home practically 24/7 since March, it was tricky finding moments where I could take to the piano and computer unnoticed and complete the composition. The most opportune time would seem to be when my psychotherapist husband conducts his sessions on-line, since then he’s in another room behind closed doors. But I couldn’t play the piano then, as the sound bleeds through the walls and would be heard during therapy.

Here is the audio of the computer program doing its inhuman best reproducing the music:

Evocation XXVII

After the break, I’ll share the full piano/viola score. But before that, a little Coronavirus treat: Ed and I in the rainbow masks Ed gifted me on my birthday in May. Here we are as the Rainbow Bandits, demanding not your money or your life but your Manolas or your Louboutins.