Music

I did not wake up expecting to write music with Johann Sebastian Bach, but that’s what happened. You can do the same using the AI in today’s marvelous Google Doodle.

I created six short pieces with four-part harmony, downloaded them, combined them in Garageband and whittled the set down to four. I chose a different instrument for each track thinking of beloved musicians: Kimberly Eldred Hanson (clarinet), Ethan Eldred (acoustic guitar), Emmett Witkovsky-Eldred (upright bass), and Juanita Brown (piano).

I chose the image thinking of the poppy sales that I recall from growing up in Vermont, in remembrance of World War I, in which my grandfather Maurice fought. These were artificial poppies of crepe and wire, but they are infinitely dear to me in memory. I can picture one now in the hand of my grandmother, Hersa.