Do you know about “This I Believe”, the popular 1950’s radio series hosted by Edward R. Murrow? The famed broadcast journalist invited his guests to state their beliefs. The concept was successfully revived by NPR a few years ago.

I admire the impulse to ask oneself -- and others -- what they believe.

It occurred to me to wonder if I could “explain” what I believe, using only the elements of music. What would my musical statement of faith sound like?

The new work I want to share with you today, titled “This I Believe,” is an artistic credo, expressing in purely musical terms my values as a composer, i.e., a statement to the effect that I believe in the value of striving to write memorable melodies with attractive tonal harmonies and interesting counterpoints and an overall architectural integrity, qualities I cherish in the composers I admire.

Two-thirds of the way through you will hear a quotation: the opening phrase from the American folksong “Shenandoah” at 3:57. That beautiful theme has haunted my music for sixty years and I still find new dimensions in it. (Many of you know that our daughter is named Shenandoah, partly after the song and partly after the Shenandoah National Park. Plus, the original meaning of the word was “clear eye’d daughter of the stars,” which touched our hearts.)

The piece “This I Believe,” was premiered a few weeks ago in a ‘house concert’ we presented in our home for about 25 invited friends. It was played in my church the following Sunday and recorded the next day at WGUC, Cincinnati’s classical music radio station where it will soon be broadcast.

One of our friends who was at the concert wrote me about the piece afterwards to say:

“A gorgeous piece, I hear in it strength, integrity, forthrightness, optimism and quiet joy. And so beautifully played.”

I would love for you hear this piece, too, via the link below, as performed by flutist Julie Morris, oboist Yo Shionoya and cellists Nora Barton and Michael Ronstadt, click on the link above.

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