Commission A Song

Yes. I found out that “commission a song” is one of the searches that is most akin to what I offer as a search term and yet not quite.

In a way, what I compose actually is a song. It certainly usually has a song-like structure with a recognizable melody and even, often, something like a bridge or a chorus which is a traditional song structure.

I haven’t been that prolific of a songwriter over the years, although I have written songs. There are reasons that I like the purely instrumental form, though. Capturing a person’s energy in a song is quite difficult, I think, without knowing them personally or unless you are creating a fictional character for whom it is easy to create a whole storyline and list of characteristics.

I have known of professional personal song creating services that seem to work well enough to stay in business and that is probably because there is no shortage of people who want to be sung about and a certain number of those will be happy with a reasonably well-crafted song that has enough unique references to them that helps them to know that whoever gave this musical gift to them cared about them.

For me, though, the purely instrumental composition has some big advantages and the main one is: pure spirit. Music is pure spirit. The essence of a person is pure spirit energy, or soul energy. Now we are talking in very abstract terms, of course, but everyone knows what this means. “The way you wear your hat” and “the way you sip your tea” are both references to actual things but also, most decidedly, a reference to a certain something about you that is very difficult to put into words.

Now, obviously someone did. In this case, it was Ira Gershwin, one of the greatest lyricists of all time. And the beauty of that song, of course, is that it speaks to all women and all men about love and that special something that makes you conclude that”: “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”.

This probably makes my point even better because a) I am not a lyricist of the caliber of Ira Gershwin and b) I’m not sure how many men are going to want me to write a love song for their woman that sounds like I have the hots for her.

Instead, the pure sounds of a cello with piano and good orchestration feels like an intimate and at the same time universal medium for the listener, both giver and receiver alike, to appreciate deeply and revel in for years to come.

Here is one that was commissioned by a man for his woman as a gift for Christmas in probably 2012, when I was on the road. Creating this was quite a mystical experience. I was actually hearing the woman’s name called as almost a chant when I was writing the melody for this. Later after I described this to her, she described how that name had come to her in a meditation and became her name after a long period of inner searching. I play this piece in the park regularly and it is a gift not only that is for her, from him, but also for the whole world.