Original Orchestral Digital Compositions inspired by the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien
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Lo, those many years ago, in my days of college, my major was Music, with emphasis on education, voice, and composition.  Although I decided (at the very last minute) not to pursue teaching as a career, music has never left my life.  In fact, I was born in the midst of it.  Both of my parents were musically inclined; they sang, Dad played anything with a keyboard he could lay hands on, and there was almost never a time when could not hear music in our house, either on the radio, on the phonograph, someone singing or humming....  Into that environment I was born, and when I was old enough to become aware of the fact that these sounds were music, and this stuff with black marks on it was the way you wrote and read music, I started reading, as quickly and spontaneously as I picked up reading books.  During my college years, I wrote a large volume of compositions of all kinds -- songs, sonatas, concerti, symphonies, you name it -- and though most of them have fallen into the ether (rightfully so, I'm afraid), I never stopped composing.  I wrote the Mass for my brother's wedding, have composed about a hundred original songs or settings for poetry, arranged the most unlikely tunes for barbershop quartet....  Yet even so, I always felt something was lacking.  I was only one person, after all, and though I could play a fair number of different instruments, I certainly couldn't play them all at once, and outside the university environment, I found that I was pretty much the only person of my acquaintance willing or able to do more than sing in a group or play a guitar.  I continued to write songs for guitar and voice, but something continued to feel lacking.  There was music in my head that wanted to come out, that wanted to be heard, not just on a piano or organ, and though I could write it down, I was always sad that I couldn't ever let others hear it the way I heard it in my head.

After a series of serious accidents left me with carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, bursitis, and all manner of other problems with my hands and arms, I felt certain that even the remote chance that my compositions would be heard was gone.  Although I can still play well enough for my own enjoyment and that of others, the dexterity needed for performance was lacking because of the injuries; even the most diligent physical therapy had been unable to bring it back.  So I resigned myself to remaining a singer, and figured that was the end of it.

Until I was introduced to the joys of MIDI and computer-generated music.  In making MIDI arrangements of my settings for Tolkien's poetry, I realized that there was great potential in this tool, if only I could lay hands on the right program.  The cheap sequencing programs I could find and afford weren't really up to what I had in mind.  Though I knew that it was unlikely I would ever find patches that could produce the sounds of the real instruments, I knew there were better ones than those I could easily find.  I upgraded my sound card and my speakers to make the most of what I had, but it was still only so good.  I knew there were professional programs available, but as I figured they would be not only beyond my reach but beyond my computer-technical comprehension, I kept making do.

And then my husband gave me a program called Sibelius.  I'd heard of it, of course, but I'd also seen the price tag that went with its power, and was sure I would never be able to get it.  Oh bless his heart, he got it for me -- and in doing so, he gave me a gift that is beyond all the gold and jewels of the earth:  he gave me back my music.  After seeing and hearing what this program could do, I was so inspired to try it out that in a matter of three or four days, I had completed a new work, now the first movement of what is now my Symphony Number Three: "The Ainulindalë."  (Don't ask about the first two symphonies; they were written back in college as exercises in the form for my composition class, and are "The Best Forgotton Symphonies."  Moreover, the only extant scores were destroyed years ago in a basement flood, an act of God I consider for the best.)

I do have orchestral scores for the work, but they will not be made available because of their sheer size (the score for movement 1 is 48 pages).  If sheet music is desired, contact me, and we can talk.  And if by some strange chance, some musical group out there would like to perform it, I'm willing to discuss it.  What the heck.