I fell in love in January of 1968 when I was 18 years old and when she -- five years later to be my wife -- was 17 years old.

That spring she shared with me music she loved, including Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” and poems she loved, including Edward Lear’s charming masterpiece of light verse, “The Owl and the Pussycat.”

I was already a composer but I had a lot to learn about music and Copland’s masterpiece was new to me, as was the Lear poem. I had a lot to learn about literature as well.

That summer I set Lear’s poem to music for her. That is to say, I used the poem as lyrics for delightful a song I wrote for soprano and piano. At 18, I already had some semblance of my own “voice” as a composer and I still take pleasure in that song today.

That fall, with high hopes and great aspirations, I entered a well known School of Music as a composition student and got smacked in the face by the academic avant garde. Students were charged to imitate the likes of Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez, not Aaron Copland, let alone George Gershwin.

I tried to have it both ways, to do what my teachers demanded while also being true to myself, a sure recipe for failure. Ugh, what awful music I wrote during those college years. The only pieces from that time of which I’m proud of today are about a dozen songs, i.e. lyrics set to music for a vocalist and piano.

My setting of “The Owl and the Pussycat” would never have passed muster in the Composition Department. It’s a far cry from the strictures of the twelve-tone system of the Second Viennese School, far removed from the primitivism of Stravinsky and Bartok.

A few years ago, around the time of our fiftieth wedding anniversary, I revised those songs, rescoring them for clarinet and piano. “The Owl and the Pussycat” is the opening movement of my “Full Circle Suite.” I want you to listen to it as performed by a wonderful clarinetist but as you listen I hope that you will read the poem. I think you will easily follow the text and, in that way, “hear” the words being “sung” by the clarinet.

Here’s the poem:

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-Tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

The musicians are clarinetist Christopher Bade and pianist Greg Kostraba. “Full Circle” is also the name of the new CD on which this suite is featured. It’s just been released by Kickshaw Records.

If you would like to purchase the new CD, here is what to do:
- go to https://kickshawrecords.com
- click on the words "Rick Sowash: Full Circle" (which takes you to https://kickshawrecords.com/product/rsp-17-rick-sowash-full-circle)
- click on "Add to Cart"
- click on "view cart" (which goes here: https://kickshawrecords.com/shop/cart)
- click on "Proceed to checkout" There is no need to create an account.

At that point, the customer just has to fill in the billing details and payment options, click on "I have read and agree to the website terms and conditions," and click on "Place order."

Please excuse the commercial interruption. CD sales help fund these recordings I share with you each week.

To hear Christopher and Greg’s performance, click on the link above. There's also a link to a PDF of the score.

Rick Sowash
Cincinnati, OH
Aug. 16, 2026