May a moody baby doom a yam?

Reading that, are you wondering if I have lost my mind? Perhaps, but that needn’t concern us here.

It’s a palindrome … a sequence of characters that reads the same forwards as it does backwards.

M A Y A M O O D Y B A B Y D O O M A Y A M

About ten years ago, when I was teaching high schoolers, one of my students shared that palindrome with our class and it became fixed in my memory.

Oddly enough -- I fear you will think I am inventing this -- that former student now works in the produce department of our neighborhood Kroger’s grocery store.

You will guess what I did. I couldn’t resist! I caught his eye. Pointing to the bin of sweet potatoes, I asked him, “Can you tell me which of these yams have not been doomed by a moody baby?”

He laughed.

Being a composer, I long since made up a vigorous little tune to go with that palindrome and I sometimes sing it to myself for my own amusement.

Too, I’ve made a choral warm-up exercise out of it, to be used by our church choir at the beginning of a rehearsal. The singing of my setting awakens the brain plus all those little muscles in our lips, cheeks and tongues which we use when we articulate words while vocalizing. Repeated rapidly, it’s a tongue-twister. Singing it accurately, up tempo, is an athletic feat, an acrobatic stunt for the embouchure.

The adjective “athletic” is not often invoked in the world of music. But last year, a critic reviewing the new CD of my cello music “Ronstadt Plays Sowash, Vol. 1,” praised Michael’s playing, calling it “poetical and athletic.”

For some reason I saw creative potential in that combination of words. The phrase prompted me to wonder if I could write a piece of music that was both vigorously poetical and gracefully athletic. An intriguing challenge!

I modified the tune I’d made for singing the “moody baby” palindrome, casting it in 6/8 instead of 2/4 and in A minor. Voilà! Then I came up with a contrasting lyrical second theme in C major and 9/8 time.

I used the “sonata allegro” form that has served music so well for so long. It has sections:

An “Exposition” section which “exposes” two contrasting themes in opposing keys.

A “Development” section which develops the themes, moving from key to key.

Finally, a “Recapitulation” section, reprising the themes, this time in the same key.

Plus an optional coda, i.e, an ending.

An elegant and ingenious aural metaphor for the reconciliation of opposites -- the two contrasting themes

You will be among the first to hear this piece. It will be featured on the CD titled “Ronstadt Plays Sowash Vol 3,” now being produced and due for release in late 2027 or 2028.

To hear “The Athlete” performed by cellist Michael Ronstadt and pianist Brian Cashwell, click on the link above. There's also a link to a PDF of the score.

Rick Sowash
Cincinnati, OH
Sept. 13, 2026

www.sowash.com