Back in 1980 I wrote “Bright April,” one of my best pieces, a setting of five poems by Sara Teasdale for mezzo soprano and cello.

Twenty years later my friend Diane Haslam performed “Bright April" with such beauty that I felt inspired to set to music more poems by Sara Teasdale for her to sing.

I read through Teasdale's collected poems and set seven to music, scoring them for mezzo and piano under the title “Teasdale Songs.”

When I came upon the poem, “I know a certain tune that my life plays,” I immediately thought of a tune I’d come up with when I was about fifteen years old. Back then I’d thought to use it as the big theme in the grandiose, romantic piano concerto I was trying to write. I thought it was ‘hot stuff!’

A few years later, the tune seemed silly to me, mawkish and clichéd.

Later still, the tune served as a florid ‘love theme’ when I played live, improvised piano accompaniments for silent film showings and several productions of the light-hearted melodrama, “Lily, the Felon’s Daughter.” It would make a good theme during the titles and credits of a soap opera.

Thinking about the tune after reading Teasdale's poem, it seemed to me to have a certain nobility and strength after all, almost in spite of itself. For better or worse, it seems to be the “certain tune that my life plays."

It’s corny, sure. I admit it. I’ve already called it “florid.”

So what? Who doesn’t like a corny tune, every now and again? Would the world really be a better place without corny tunes?

Here’s the poem:

I know a certain tune that my life plays;
Over and over I have heard it start
With all the wavering loveliness of viols
that gain in swiftness like a runner’s heart,

It climbs and climbs; I watch it sway in climbing
High even over time and doubt,
It has all heaven to itself, it pauses
And faltering blindly down the air, goes out.

Here’s the song, sung with all due gusto by Susan Olson. click on the link above.

To see a PDF of the score, click on the link above.

🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶 🎶

When I came upon Sarah Teasdale’s poem, “I know a certain tune that my life plays,” I immediately thought of a tune I composed way back, when I was about fifteen years old. I’d thought to use it as the Big Theme in the grandiose, romantic piano concerto I was trying to write. I thought it was ‘hot stuff!’

A few years later, the tune seemed silly to me, melodramatic and clichéd.

Still, it had its uses. Being melodramatic, the tune served as a florid ‘love theme’ when I played live, improvised piano accompaniments for showings of silent film classics and community theatre productions of tongue-in-cheek melodramas such as “Lily, the Felon’s Daughter.”

Later yet, remembering the tune after reading Teasdale's poem, it seemed to me to have a certain nobility and strength after all, almost in spite of itself. It takes me back to my mid-teens and the plans I was making to do great things. It’s fun for me to encounter, again, a tune I wrote nearly six decades ago.

For better or worse, this tune seems to be, for me, the “certain tune that my life plays."

The tune is corny, sure. I admit it. Just wait. Hey, I’ve already said it is “florid.”

So what? Who doesn’t like a corny tune, every now and again? Where’s the harm in a corny tune? Would we be somehow better off without corny tunes? I don’t see how.

And it’s just under 90 seconds long. Heck, you can stand ANY music for that long!

Here’s the poem:

I know a certain tune that my life plays;
Over and over I have heard it start
With all the wavering loveliness of viols
that gain in swiftness like a runner’s heart,

It climbs and climbs; I watch it sway in climbing
High even over time and doubt,
It has all heaven to itself, it pauses
And faltering blindly down the air, goes out.

Here’s the song, sung with all due gusto by Susan Olson. click on the link above.

To see a PDF of the score, click on the link above.