when asked, "How long have you been a musician?," likes to answer, "Since nine months before I was born."
John began studying music at a very young age and never stopped. His favorite composers are Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. His favorite works are Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Mozart's Requiem and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Much of John's classical musical taste was handed down to him by his father.
Despite John's love for classical music, he also loves to Rock. Although John considers Keith Emerson (ELP) to be the undisputed king of rock keyboards, he prefers the orchestral styles of Tony Banks (Genesis) and Rick Wakeman (Yes) and the down to earth piano style of a younger Elton John.
John began composing in his mid teens with song like Wind Me Up and To A Drunk, both of which have been resurrected and cleaned up by H. His brother Michael used to write tons of lyrics and leave them in an old shoe box on top of the piano. He never seemed to mind that John was always raiding the box to find a new set of words to write music to. John's compositional style is much like Elton John's (his inspiration way back when). He prefers to write music to completed lyrics.
Lately, Peter has been writing lyrics for John and the songs just keep coming. Peter rewrote lyrics to many of John's old songs. Lately the most exciting rewrite has been to Confessions Of An Escaped Convict; music now by John and Peter.
On the classical side, John has also been busy. Four movements are now completed of his Mass In C Minor, to be dedicated to his mother.
His first major classical work, Prelude In E Dorian - Reminiscence, was composed for Paula Myers for her marriage to Michael. Actually it was written quite accidentally during a casual improvisation session at the piano. When John got up to leave the room, Paula, who had been relaxing on the living room sofa asked if he would play it at her wedding. John sat right back down to try to recreate what he had just "jammed". He was successful. The piece was later approved for performance in a Public Recital at George Mason University where shouts of "author, author" were said to have accompanied a rousing applause. Unfortunately John was unable to attend the recital so he missed out on the moment.
Another classical piece that John hopes to have performed someday is his Improvisation For Oboe & Violoncellos. This was written in a short improv session intended to test a new tone he had programmed in his keyboard. He is very happy that he decided to record that session.
John plans to get back to another classical project soon: his Classic Variations On An Original Theme. Although the theme itself was composed by John, he plans to incorporate the styles of the great composers in the variations, naming the movements after the composer. It should be an interesting work; a novelty for the classical music enthusiast.
The music you are hearing is the second movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata in C, KV 279. This is a sample from John's latest project: The complete Mozart Piano Sonatas for general MIDI. The music was sequenced using Master Tracks Pro for Windows and a Kurzweil PC88mx Controller (keyboard). This sequence can be best experienced using a high-end General MIDI sound module.
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