My grandfather took the songs he loved (mostly from the 40s and 50s) and wrote his own words to the tunes. Many of these were performed over the phone and recorded onto my home answering machine, along with spoken messages to me and my family. As the messages move forward in time, the decline in his health is evident, making singing a belabored process. The players in this piece interact temporally and dramatically with one specific song that he dedicated to me. Not knowing the source material, I attempt to fully realize the song in the characteristic arranging style of mid-century ‘crooner’ music, while also exploring distorted and transformed versions of the same ideas.

Dedicated to Frank Messina, 1938–2014.