Here’s something you might not have noticed: All the music on “Two Hands” is in 3/4 time.
I didn’t really plan it that way. I did have it in my mind to someday do a follow up to “Spinning World: 13 Ways of Looking at a Waltz “, and so my sketchbooks of ideas did have a lot of 3/4 time pieces. But for “Two Hands” I did not want to be constrained in any way, so I wrote and rehearsed and even recorded some pieces in other time signatures. But none of those pieces fit on the final album. They stood out awkwardly, interrupted the flow of the CD. And some of them are really really good compositions (they will someday see the light).
Even though the music is all in 3/4, “Two Hands” does not feel whirly, or light-headed. Very few of the pieces are played in strict tempo, and those that are (“Oak Sky” for example), are more moody and insistent than danceable. This is not a CD about dancing. it’s a CD of mood and emotion – in any way or form. It just happens to be in 3/4 time.