A very Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Yesterday, I received this email message from an old friend:

“We are visiting family in Florida for the holidays. While driving to New Smyrna Beach to walk the dog, I was listening to WMFE (the Orlando classical station). Just as I was about to turn off the engine, the host introduced “A Christmas Rondo” by none other than our friend Rick Sowash. It brought an instant smile to my face. What a treat to begin our morning beach walk thinking of you and your music.
Wishing you and Jo a beautiful Christmas.”

Imagine the immense satisfaction, the deep delight that I feel, reading this The sensation is almost physical, seated in the stomach, I think and spreading from there. A glow or a richness, a sense of well being I cannot find the words to describe this feeling.

“A Christmas Rondo,” broadcast in Florida and elsewhere over recent weeks, was written in 1983. Broadcast FORTY years later! I wonder if it will be broadcast forty years from now.

I wrote the piece to be played at a fancy affair Jo and I put on to thank the good people on the Board of Directors of the non-profit corporation we had just formed save an historic theatre in downtown Mansfield, my home town.

Jo and I invited them to a candle-lit Holiday dinner in our home, twenty guests in all. We served Cornish hen stuffed with wild rice, glazed with apricot brandy. Jo placed a sprig of holly on each glistening, fragrant, heavy-laden plate of food. Lovely.

I wanted to treat our guests to some Tafelmuzik, literally "table-music,” i.e., music to be played during a feast. Friends had formed a string trio so I invited them to play during the banquet. I wrote “A Christmas Rondo” specially for this grand occasion.

The piece mixes original and traditional music. It opens with one of my own Advent carols, "The King Shall Come." Next we hear several lesser-known traditional carols, each one developed and then making a segue to the next. Part of the fun is hearing the many transitions as the key and character of the music changes.

"The King Shall Come" comes again, sure enough, returning as a variation half-way through, Then come developments of yet more lesser-known carols before my Advent carol returns once again, ending the piece with a variation-finale. I deliberately avoided the over-played carols; you'll probably recognize about half of the carols I used in this piece.

Please think of this email as my Holiday greeting card to you, dear friends and fans. A little Tafelmuzik (eat something delicious while you're listening!) to thank you for your friendship and your willingness to let me share my life's work with you in these weekly messages. I appreciate your open ears, hearts and minds immensely.

To hear A Christmas Rondo played by three very fine Cincinnati string players Kris Frankenfeld, Belinda Burge and Ellen Shertzer, click on the link above.

There's also a link to the PDF of the score.