One Song, a Day's Work

I spent one whole day this past weekend writing/rewriting/adding to a song I wrote back in 2001. I wrote it in a songwriting class my producer Wayne Wallace taught. But I wasn't happy with the melody. I've tried a bunch of alternatives. I'm learning Debussy's Claire de Lune right now, which is in 3/4, and for several years I've played Joplin's Bethena, a waltz, and this song has a 3/4 section in it though the chorus is in 4/4. So I was examining the Debussy and Joplin pieces for inspiration in terms of the piano part. This is only the second song where I've written out an entire piano part for it.

The cool thing is that I got it into sufficient shape to bring it into Grace Cathedral and sing it this past Sunday night at the service I solo for(it's on the Sundays at Six audio archive at www.gracecathedral.org, actually, for one week). I don't know if it's too goopy (my greatest fear), but hey, it's a whole piece and that's something. I've also started doing a better job of writing transitions (better in that I actually write a transition from one section to the next as opposed to none). Though it was funny when I brought it into John Sullivan, the pianist/organist. He got to one section where I just had blank bars with chord symbols, and he's not a jazz guy so he prefers notated accompaniment. He said, "What do I do here?" and I said, "I don't know, I didn't get that far, but try those chords." So that section is still funky, I can hear it on the recording. Here are the lyrics:

You Cry
By Alexandra L. Weber Morales © 2001

You cry
I dry your tears
You sigh
And I calm your fears

The sun goes down
And clouds gather angrily
But I envelop you invisibly
The bay is cold
Fog is gray
But I will always stay
To offer strength and sympathy

You cry
I dry your tears
You ask why
And I calm your fears

The night is black
And wind rattles through the leaves
But I am high above you in the trees
The ground is hard
Grass is dry
But I will always fly
And sing a sparrow’s song for you

You cry
I dry your tears
You ask why
And I calm your fears

The road is long
No signposts to guide your way
But I make smooth the paths on which you stray
From glaciers high, the river runs
And someone always comes
To share a moment’s peace with you