Cover Design
MacArthur Boulevard, An Old Love Affair
MacArthur Boulevard is a road in Washington, D.C. where I grew up. The road originates just north of Georgetown at Foxhall Road and runs next to the C&O Canal, the Potomac River and the Potomac Palisades, and ends at the Great Falls of the Potomac River. Metaphorically, figuratively, MacArthur Boulevard is an artery in my consciousness, so much of my young life played out all along that road. MAC ARTHUR BOULEVARD, AN OLD LOVE AFFAIR began as a musical evocation of particular places along its length with powerful emotional associations from my personal history up to about my thirtieth year. I would select one such place and dwell on my memories and improvise out of my feelings as I meditated, horn in hand, to my lips. From these musical meditations, I recorded six movements, a prelude, “Nostalgia” and “Nostalgia, The Finale, a vocal rendition sung by Irene Goodnight.
Intrinsically, there is a narrative quality to the musical compositions.The compositions were made impromptu and spontaneous and recorded on the first take. There is some over dubbing, but no revision.
Herein is the loose web of a scrip of sorts, more accurately the prompts for musicians, players, mimes, dancers to extend my evocation of my passages in time played out along MacArthur, coming of age into an oratorio of a universal experience, a jam. Herein are gleanings, evolution of musical narrative into poems, vignettes,
sketches/drawings, imaginings and musings, prompts for street theater.
My compositions are scored and included in this scrip for whatever purpose that may serve. There is no particular order to the scrip which is intended to be approached at random and interjected by the players’ inclinations.
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