Listen here.
1. Eleventy-First Birthday
-Hobbits from afar travel to Hobbiton for Bilbo’s birthday celebration (J.R.R. Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring)
2. Port William Waltz
-Based on Jayber’s quaint 20th century village (Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow)
3. Sea Ride
-From Ransom’s joyous ride on a dolphin-like fish in Perelandra (C.S. Lewis, Perelandra)
-Composed for the high school graduation of my cousin, Steven Traphagen
4. Felsenheim & the Boa
-The serenity of the Robinsons’ grotto and the attack of the giant anaconda (Johann Wyss, Swiss Family Robinson)
5. Soliloquy
-Valjean’s struggle with the lavish grace and generosity of the bishop (Victor Hugo, Les Misérables)
-Composed for Lauren Lawrence, the talented artist who produced the charcoal sketch of my album cover
6. Marble Lady
-Captures the animation, escape, and pursuit of the marble lady by Anodos (George MacDonald, Phantastes)
7. Thérèse
-Based on the inner turmoil and eventual freedom of Thèrése (François Mauriac, Thèrése Desqueyroux)
8. Pequod
-Concerning the perilous adventures of Ishmael on Captain Ahab’s whaling ship (Herman Melville, Moby Dick)
9. Thornfield
-The Gothic romance of Jane and Mr. Rochester in his sprawling estate (Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre)
10. Recalled to Life
-About the life and sacrificial death of Sydney Carton (Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities)
11. The Mallorn of 1420
-Sam’s mallorn becomes the wonder of the neighborhood in the restoration of 1420 (J.R.R. Tolkien, Return of the King)
12. Hrossa
-Ransom lives with the hrossa on Malacandra to understand them better (C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet)
13. Little Em’ly
-David Copperfield’s budding friendship with Em’ly on the beach in Yarmouth (Charles Dickens, David Copperfield)
14. Reunited
-Istra reunites with Orual and relays her story of escape and transition to the palace (C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces)
15. Vigil
-Rev. Dimmesdale’s secret agony expressed during his nightly vigils (Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter)