“For Golden Friends I Had” is a new piece of music and you are almost the first to hear it.

I finished writing this piece just three months ago. The musician friends whom I had in mind when I was writing it readily agreed to rehearse and record it, for which I am deeply grateful.

It will be featured on a CD of my music to be titled “For Golden Friends” that will be released some time next year.

But you can listen to the title track right now.

The piece was inspired by a photo of my late friend Dick Ferrell, sent to me by his son Jeremy. Dick is pictured reclining on a blanket on a beach, the waves coming in behind him, a sunny day. He is smiling into the camera and waving hello. The photo was taken at the Outer Banks, a place where he loved to vacation with his family.

The title of the piece is the second line of this perfect little poem by A.E. Housman:

With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a light-food lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping
The light-foot boys are laid.
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.

The “heart” of the piece comes at 6:58 when the oboe sounds the main theme while the viola echoes it a measure later. That moment is like two friends singing the same song on their own terms yet in harmony. That is how it was between Dick Ferrell and me.

We’d been friends since I was eleven years old -- a long long time. We were in Scouts together as boys and then, later, as adult volunteers. Most memorably, we organized and led 8-day “high adventure” canoe trips for Scouts in Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park. Six adults and about twenty boys, all 14 years old or older.

There's a photo of Dick and me, taken exactly forty years ago, in the park, which I have shared with my email subscribers. I’m 36 in this photo. Slimmer back then. We're posing just before shoving off [in] canoes. I know all about canoes and love ‘em. The hours spent with a paddle in my hands were golden.

Dick and I kept in touch over the years, mainly by frequent emails.

I miss him very much and this elegy expresses that, I think.

To hear “For Golden Friends I Had” played by oboist Yo Shionoya, French horn players Danielle Cain and Doug Jones, violist Rose Gowda and cellist Michael Ronstadt, click on the link above. There's also a link to a PDF of the score.

I'd love to know what you think about this music; reply if you're inclined. But please don't feel that you are expected to reply. I'm just glad to share my work in this way.

As always, feel free to forward this message to friends who might enjoy it.

Anyone can be on my little list of recipients for these mpFrees (as I call these musical emails). To sign up, people can email me at rick@sowash.com, sending just one word: "Yes." I'll know what it means.

Rick Sowash
Cincinnati, OH
June 21, 2026
www.sowash.com