Living Memory is a collection of eleven solos composed for double second steel pan. The sheet music, as well as many other compositions for full steel band composed by CJ can be found at Boxfish Music Publishing, Inc.
Here are the program notes:
Living Memory
The eleven pieces that comprise Living Memory were primarily composed as continuing conversations with my father, Delvin Menge, following his passing in 2015. While I have many personal associations with the subject of each piece, the intent is not to merely memorialize my father, but rather to inspire the notion of breathing new life into past memories. These past memories can enrich our present and also inform our future choices and actions. Some themes found in the collection are feelings of joy, turmoil, humor, peace, and hope. Especially present, however, is unconditional love for both those we are close to as well as the stunning natural beauty of this planet. Much of Living Memory was written while staying along the North Shore of Lake Superior, in far Northern Minnesota. Although these pieces are presented as a collection, they can be performed separately or in smaller groupings if desired.
Brief notes about each movement:
I. Rip Current– Refers to the circular undertow found at times in Lake Superior, or any large body of water, that can at times be impossible to escape. This piece also symbolically depicts an individual’s struggle with depression.
II. Moran– Attempts to capture the angular beauty and pervasive silence of Mount Moran, in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.
III. Beth Ann– A love song from my father to my sister, Beth Ann House.
IV. The Deer Fly Gang– The peacefulness of a brilliant summer day in Northern Minnesota is interrupted by a swarm of menacing, persistent deer flies.
V. Wildflower– Celebrates the multi-faceted strength, beauty, resourcefulness, and originality of my wife, Lindsey Rambo.
VI. Moving Still– The concept for this piece originated while standing in Lake Superior at the point where the Brule River flows into the lake.
VII. Zip to Zap– Zap, North Dakota (population 237) was, in 1969, the site of a college spring break party (the “Zip to Zap”), that gained national attention for all of the wrong reasons.
VIII. 1876– References the Battle of the Little Big Horn, also known as Custer’s Last Stand.
IX. The Glockenspiel– A traditional German restaurant in St. Paul, Minnesota (sadly no longer open for business) that frequently featured an roaming accordion player who performed classic waltzes and polkas, with the occasional Jimi Hendrix tune thrown in for good measure.
X. Come into the Mountains Dear Friend– Inspired by a poem by Susan Polis Schutz:
“Come into the mountains, dear friend
Leave society and take no one with you
but your true self
Get close to nature
Your everyday games will become insignificant
Notice the clouds spontaneously forming patterns
and try to do that with your life
A man is only complete
when he has a true friend”
XI. Evergreen– Composed while overlooking Lake Superior from the deck of the Naniboujou Lodge on a clear summer morning, surrounded by evergreen trees set against the contrasting blues of the bright, cloudless sky and calm water.
CJ has composed and arranged over 150 works for steel band. Check out a number of his works at Boxfish Music Publishing, Inc.
“Skye” (2013), composed following a performance tour of Scotland, which included the Isle of Skye: