“Salt & Pepper Suite.”

Ponder that title. Which instruments would you expect to play a piece with such a title?

A flute and an oboe, obviously. Why? Because salt is white and pepper is black … and the flute is silvery-white while the oboe is mostly black. It only makes sense!

What would characterize the sound and style of the music waiting to be heard in a suite with such a title?

Can there be “salty” music? Can music be “peppery?” Why not?

Program music, after all, is pretty much whatever the composer says it is.

So, I say: salty music should have a refreshing bite. Peppery music should be pleasantly dissonant.

How long would such music be? Not long. We don’t want a bowl of salt or a mug of pepper. A little will do.

As you will have guessed, I recently composed a “Salt & Pepper Suite” and it has just been recorded. It will be featured on one of the several CDs of my music now in production and to be released next year.

There’s a little humor in the piece, too. Listen, at :58, for a quotation from Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America!” It's the part that goes, “From the mountains, to the prairies, to the ocean white with foam!”

Stylistically, the music is not too far removed from “Peter & the Wolf.”

Is your mouth watering to hear this music? (Pardon the mixed metaphor.)

You don’t have to wait to get a “taste” of what will be “served.” You can hear the first movement right now, as recorded by my friends: flutist Betty Douglas and oboist Yo Shionoya, whose last name, it happens, is the Japanese word meaning "SALT." I honestly did not know that when I wrote this piece, which is dedicated to Yo and his wife, Julie. What a coincidence! Just click on the link above. There's also a link to a PDF of the score.

Rick Sowash
Cincinnati, OH
June 28, 2026

www.sowash.com