The “Muse Room” is the room in my house where I make music and my wife makes visual art. Published the first Monday of the month, each issue of Letters from the Muse Room will include news and updates about my music, as well as something that has inspired me creatively over the past month.

Dear friends,
Happy March! They say it’s in like a lion and out like a lamb; the first part has certainly been true in Kansas City, as we just had yet another snowstorm this past weekend. Here’s hoping the second part holds true too. On the brighter side, my wife and daughter made a New Orleans-style king cake for Mardi Gras tomorrow:

I don’t have too much to share this month on the music front. I didn’t have a chance to record an audio clip of panicpanicpanic, but I promise I’ll send that in April. The main thing I’ve been working on is setting up a new webstore on https://www.ajharbison.com to sell sheet music, and formatting all my scores consistently in preparation to launch an official self-publishing company (to be named, appropriately, Muse Room Press). Mostly behind-the-scenes work thus far, but if all goes according to plan, you’ll be able to purchase scores through my website by the end of this month!

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This past week at work, facing a day of data entry, I decided to listen through all ten piano sonatas of the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, who lived at the turn of the 20th century (and sported an epic mustache).

His music is not always my cup of tea, but it was fascinating to hear the evolution of his style by listening through all ten sonatas in sequence, as they span his entire composing career. The first three sound a lot like Rachmaninoff and Chopin, while the fourth and fifth sound more like Debussy. Then with the sixth he takes his own turn — numbers six, seven and eight are much more dissonant (but also more unique and idiomatic). The ninth and tenth, though, go back to more of an Impressionistic sound, similar to Debussy but more true to Scriabin’s own voice than the earlier ones.

It’s an exercise I’ve done before with other artists — listening to all U2’s albums through in order, for example. It always makes for an intriguing listening experience, and the broader perspective often brings out things I haven’t heard before in the music. I encourage you to give it a try!

Thanks for reading. See you in April!

Peace,
AJ Harbison

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