- original music and arrangements -

Springtime

"Walk lightly in the spring; Mother Earth is pregnant."
- Kiowa

"Earth teach me acceptance - as the leaves that die each fall.
Earth teach me renewal - as the seed that rises in the spring. "
- An Ute prayer

Yellow Flowers
Photo: Gary Cunningham
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Who hasn't felt that wonderful refreshing feeling when Spring is in the air? There are buds on the trees, flowers are starting to bloom and greenery is beginning to sprout up and blossom everywhere you turn. The emergence of bumble bees and butterflies are joined with the chirping of birds and the peeping of small frogs. To quote Lady Bird Johnson: "Where flowers bloom, so does hope."

About The Music
The melody for this instrumental was birthed on the Native American bass flute. During the weeks while in transit when moving north, the flutes were the only instruments available—everything else in my music studio was still boxed or not set up yet!. I finally was able to set up the recording studio and despite a few still lingering kinks I was able to lay this one down. smiley

Although the majority of the piece is in D minor, it moves to the relative major (F major) for the fade out ending1 - reinforcing the positivity that each successive day of Spring will bring... Excessive trills in that section could be birds singing !

1 - Note: I switched to the higher pitched G minor red cedar flute for this section.

Photos
Many thanks to the contributors of the wonderful photos in the slideshow. Further Info - Credits » (opens in new tab)

Ute people
Ute people
Ute
The Ute are an Indigenous tribe of the Great Basin. They have lived in the regions of present-day Utah and Colorado in the Southwestern United States for many centuries. The state of Utah is named after the Ute tribe. In addition to their ancestral lands within Colorado and Utah, their historic hunting grounds extended into current-day Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arizona, and California Ute people
Kiowa tipi
Kiowa tipi
Kiowa
Kiowa people are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries, and finally into the Southern Plains by the early 19th century. The main form of shelter used by the Kiowa was the tipi or skin lodge. Tipis were made from bison hides shaped and sewn together in a conical shape. Kiowa people