I wrote a pipe tune last weekend called “Lament for South Asia” that was inspired by the continuing images of death and destruction caused by the tsunami. The number of people who have been killed is staggering. I can hardly wrap my mind around such a tragedy. This tune started in my head while lying in bed last Thursday night. I wrote the bulk of it on Friday, then finished it up on Saturday. The recording of it was “interesting” since I have very lousy recording gear… Anyway, I don’t claim that this is the greatest pipe tune ever written, but I’m quite pleased with it. If you are interested in hearing/playing it, use the following links:

• Sheet music in PDF format.
• Sheet music in PNG format.
• Computer-generated MIDI rendering. This is a “recording” of the tune, played by my computer.
• MP3 of me playing the tune on a set of Walsh Shuttle Pipes.

All I ask is that if you decide to perform it, give me credit for writing it and make a donation to disaster relief in South Asia.

Also, any feedback (either comments posted here, or private emails) are welcome.

Update (01/09/2005): Someone far more skilled in the musical arts than I realized, as I did, that this tune just didn’t feel like a 5/4, but something in triple meter. I tried several variations (3/4, 6/8, 12/8) but couldn’t manage to get all the notes to fit. To quote the king From Amadeus, there were simply “too many notes.” Well, this far more skilled person, Scott McClellan, transcribed the audio of my playing, and sent me a wonderfully rendered transcript in 6/8. It does fit! After seeing what he did, and playing it just to verify, I reworked my ABC source file, and re-rendered the PDF and PNG files. The links above now point to the new-and-improved versions. Thanks, Scott.