Click to enlarge $10.95

For: medium voice and ten-string guitar
duration: 9:30
12 pages
world premiere: January 8, 2010, Concord NH, by Duo LiveOak

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I was looking for something else to write for my new ten-string guitar by Stephen Connor. My wife, Nancy Knowles, found an old copy of "Christmas Stories" by Dickens sitting on a shelf at my in-laws' house and suggested we extract quotes from "The Chimes" to write some songs. It was right after Christmas 2008. I frequently have a creative rush at the end of the year - free time and a beautiful place to hole up for a couple of weeks. I set right to work, and met my goal of finishing the piece on the afternoon of December 31.

Here's a quote from the second song: "The year was Old, that day. The patient Year had lived through the reproaches and misuses of its slanderers and faithfully performed its work." And the fourth: "I see the Spirit of the Chimes among you! I know that our inheritance is held in store for us by Time...I know that we must trust and hope, and neither doubt ourselves, nor doubt the good in one another. I have learnt it form the creature dearest to my heart…. O Spirits, merciful and good, I am grateful!"...the Bells, the old familiar bells, his own dear, constant, steady friends, the Chimes, began to ring the joy-peals for a New Year: so lustily, so merrily, so happily, so gaily, that he leapt upon his feet, and broke the spell that bound him. They WERE ringing! Bless their steady hearts, they WERE ringing! Great Bells as they were; melodious deep mouthed, noble Bells…when had they ever chimed like that before! …So may the New Year be a happy one to you! So may each year be happier than the last."

Here is the whole book if you would like to read more and see the gorgeous drawings!

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Copyright ©2008 Frank A. Wallace
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