I remember the first time I heard Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite. The whole idea of someone memoralizing a visual scene into music excited me. Even the names of the pieces; Sunrise, Painted Desert, On the Trail... gave me pleasure.
Upon first listening I was hooked. The notion that this composer gave life to nature's beauty was a first of it's kind back then. It was called "Program Music." It's purpose was to allow the listener to imagine the scenes while the composition spun its course.
When New Age music came to the fore in the mid 1980's, I felt the same excitement as I did upon listening to Grand Canyon Suite. Now we had someone who was creating CDs like "Winter into Spring" and "December." Using only the piano, George Winston revitalized the genre known as "program music." And of course, I added my own efforts too.
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