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Meditations for a New Year’s Day is many things to many people. It is evocative piano music for any time of year. It is an interfaith experience of the winter holidays, combining Christmas, Chanukah and music of many cultures in a single celebration. It is familiar tunes like What Child Is This? and Auld Lang Syne, and more obscure songs like the Bolivian Navidava Puri Nihuaand the Sephardic Ocho Kandelikas. It provides a meditative atmosphere for walking a labyrinth, for healing work, for any kind of reflection. It is folk music in the spirit of Ralph Vaughn Williams and Aaron Copland, with virtuoso piano arrangements. It also has moments of Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, David Darling, Jacquline Schwab, J. S. Bach and Claude Debussy. It is haunting and joyful, tender and tempestuous and, at times, silly. Meditations for a New Year’s Day is unique.
Complete Playlist of Songs heard in Meditations for a New Year’s Day
LABYRINTH
Part I: Spiraling In
1 Once In Royal David’s City
Once in Royal David’s City
Coventry Carol
Bring A Torch, Jeannette, Isabella
What Child is This?
We Three Kings of Orient Are
Soul Cake
God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen
2 Chanukah!
Chanukah, Oh Chanukah
S’vivon, Sov Sov Sov
Mi Y’Malel
Rock of Ages
3 Navidava
Navidava
Alle Psallite Cum Luya
Brincan Y Bailan!
Ocho Kandelikas by Flory Jagoda
Part II: Centering
4 The Question for David Darling, after “Cello Blue”
5 Where Do I Find Freedom? (Thumb Piano)
for the African slaves and their descendants
6 Where Will I Be Tomorrow?
for Charlie Parker, after “Parker’s Mood”
7 Where Do I See My True Reflection?
for Claude Debussy, after “Reflets dans l’eau” from Images Bk. I
8 Where Do I Find Peace?
for Bill Evans, after “Peace Piece”
9 Where Do I Find Love?
for Jacqueline Schwab, after “The Young Widow”
& “My Cape Breton Home” by Jerry Holland
10 Where Do I Find Joy? (Dueling Gavottes)
for J. S. Bach, after Gavotte I from the E Major violin partita
& Gavotte II from the D Major cello suite
11 The Response for David Darling, after “Cello Blue”
Part III: Spiraling Out
12 Dancing in Midwinter
Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day
In the Bleak Midwinter
13 Auld Lang Syne
To Drive the Cold Winter Away
Deck the Halls
Auld Lang Syne
The Parting Glass
14 Bright Morning Stars
Bright Morning Stars
I’ll Fly Away
My Lord, What a Morning!
Reviews
"What a terrific collection of music!"
Naomi Arenberg, host, Folk On WGBH
WBGH Radio, Boston
"The music is lovely and haunting, both new and familiar - a re-invention of memory, or, as in a labyrinth, a transformation of memory."
Jane Eklund, Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
Peterborough, NH
"Luminous playing, with a sound that creates itself as it moves. This is miles beyond technical mastery."
Marka Knight, principal artist
Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble
New York City
"This will get a lot of play. It's perfect store music."
Barbara Medlyn, co-owner, The Quartz Source
Milford, NH
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