The story behind the music and the book.

A Garden of Music marks an important time in my life. After years of studying music at University, I felt lost and confused. I didn’t really know who I was as a composer and where I was going. All I knew was that I needed to write music, even if I didn't quite know what form that music would take.

It was a tough time, but the sun comes after the rain, as the saying goes, so I kept looking for myself in every note I wrote or heard.

It was in the eyes of my young music students that I eventually found what I was looking for. I saw that many kinds of music got them excited - everything from Bach to the craziest modern sounds! It was not an academic response to music, but an honest gut reaction, something in them connecting to the music.

Through their eyes, I saw what kind of music I wanted to write - music that was contemporary, always striving for the new, but music that would still give that gut reaction that got all of us into music to begin with.

Because it was children that opened my eyes and showed me the way, it was only right that my first mature project would be pieces dedicated to them.

The pieces were to be based on folk tales. That decision was made because the extra-musical associations would allow the music to use a modern, dissonant style and also because the meaning and imagery from the stories would make the playing experience much richer.

And so I searched for appropriate folk tales for a long, long time, and even wrote music based on three of them, but nothing was working. One day I was at the library, in the kid’s folk tales section, and there was a misplaced copy of A Children’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson just lying around. It looked nice enough and I thought my son might enjoy them, so I plopped it the bag along and kept on looking for folk tales.

That night, my son and I sat down to read the Stevenson poems and it was instant magic! A bolt from the blue. The poems were so vivid in imagery and filled with meaning that they seemed to inspire music on the spot! I knew right then and there that I had found the perfect companion for this project.

I had a hard time sleeping that night, it was like years of work had been leading to this moment. I was ready and couldn’t wait to get to work.

The next day I was up at dawn, promptly chose my favourite poems and began to write.
The music just flew out, fast and furious, like a thousand butterflies that had been waiting to be set free. The poems were a true inspiration, so much so that sometimes a single line was enough to inspire an entire piece!

Two months later the entire collection of 21 pieces was done.

It was important that the book for A Garden of Music was as special and beautiful as I felt these pieces to be. I had this vision of a book where poems, music and illustrations all came together on rich, textured paper - a book that would enhance the experience of playing the pieces.

And I knew I wanted to make the book myself because I had most of the skills to put it together, although some were a bit rusty.

When I wrote A Garden of Music I had not done any drawing or painting for almost 10 years, which is a very sad thing to think about.

I used to draw a lot and started making money at it when I was 13 or 14, getting cartoons published and eventually becoming an illustrator for a big marketing firm in Quebec. But at the age of 16 I realized that music was my true passion, art sadly fell by the wayside.

It was like I had been neglecting a part of myself all these years and A Garden of Music was a way to get that back.

Pen and ink was the best medium because it best suited the time period of Stevenson’s poems. I was definitely rusty at first, but soon it all came back and I was even better than before, which probably has to do more from the patience of maturity than anything else.

But making a book is a lot more than just putting some notes, words and drawings on paper, as I found out.

This is a common scenario: you are playing the piano and the page starts to rise. You keep on playing as you lean sideways, but eventually the page reaches 90 degrees and, exasperated, you slam it back down into place.

And slowly it starts to rise again...

I really wanted the book that held A Garden of Music to enhance the experience of playing the music, not detract from it.

But making a book that was beautiful, practical and also affordable to produce was a real challenge.

It took many months of arduous research into the amazing art of book-making to come to the book I have now, and through it I gained an unspeakable appreciation for books and their makers.

I will refrain from explaining everything I went through to make this book; it would take many thousands of words. But indulge me for a moment as I tell you about the book’s features, starting from the inside.

The paper is a clear white colour that makes reading easy, it is thick and sturdy to withstand years of page turns and with minimum show-through. The paper is also acid-free so it won’t yellow with age.

The covers were cut, glued and wrapped by hand by my wife and I on high-quality bookbinders board. The printed cover, the end-paper and board were all purchased in different locations.

All of this is bound together with a golden Wire-O binding, allowing the book to open flat and stay flat! (Let me say here, that golden wire was a real headache to find and it was quite a drive to get there once I did find it. But it was worth it.)

I remember driving home from the bindery with a trunk full of completed books. After the months of hard work it was a surreal moment. The book was even more beautiful than I had envisioned.

The final element to the book was the recording, but this part was the easiest of all, thanks to the help of the wonderful pianist Sandra Joy Friesen.

I had bought a stereo pair of high-quality microphones for the occasion. I read up on recording the piano to get the sound I wanted – a close, intimate sound that would make you feel like you are sitting right next to the pianist.

I packed my car full of recording gear, met Sandra and the experience was an absolute joy!

Apart from being a very talented pianist and an amazing sight-reader, she was also extremely generous, warm and supportive.

She took great care in preparing the pieces and her performances are full of clarity, charm, drama, fun, wit and energy! She improved A Garden of Music through her interpretations.

A Garden of Music has been done for a year now. I have written other, more mature pieces since. But all of those pieces and the ones to come stem from the writing of the music in this book.

A Garden of Music will always be special to me, an important event in my life. I guess I am a little sentimental about it, but I can only hope that it will be just as special to everyone who plays or listens to it.

All the best,

Alain

Here are some samples from the recording performed by Sandra Joy. These can be found on the CD which is available as an option.