Although I like all of the pieces in Roman Goddesses, Vesta is my favorite. This composition just flowed out of my brain and onto the page. I enjoy how the melody is so simple that it pulls you into the moment and draws you into that feeling of hearth and home. I kept this piece on my desktop for almost three weeks, playing it two or three times a day, adding a note here and there or taking some away. Toward the end, I knew I had the melody I wanted, but the piece didn’t flow as I had hoped. So I carefully added subtle rhythmic ideas to help move the melody along, and finally I had the sound I was looking for.

In this composition, I wanted a stronger opening statement than in the other pieces, with a sound like ancient battle horns. The opening fourths are often used for this in movies about ancient history, so I used them for the opening statement. The dotted rhythm with the block chords gives you the sense of battle and war. In the middle section, I wanted to find peace or a respite from the battle. I achieved this by shifting to a major key, slowing the tempo, and changing the left-hand rhythm. Then, for the final section, I wanted a reprise of the war rhythm, so I repeated the opening of the piece to bring us back into battle.

Of all the compositions, Ceres was probably the easiest to put together. I used two of my favorite tricks for improvising and writing: descending bass lines and major 7th chords. To be honest, I was thinking more about motherly love than the harvest when composing this piece! I wanted to create the feeling of warmth and comfort a mother gives her child as you listen to the music. The predominant use of major 7th chords creates a dreamlike feeling of light and hope, while the quietly descending bass line evokes the feeling of lying in your mother’s arms. Sometimes a piece of music just flows out of you, and Ceres was one of those pieces.

Diana was a lot of fun to write. I wanted to do something different, so I started with 6/8 time and played around with the rhythm in the left hand. After experimenting with different patterns, I realized I wasn’t getting what I wanted. Then I thought I would try intertwining the left and right-hand parts to give the piece motion. What I came up with was a pattern that got its rhythmic motion from a constant stream of eighth notes, with both hands sharing the notes. This gave it a smooth, unique motion. The middle part uses running sixteenth notes to support the melody, then returns to the original melody, but with a steady rhythm in the left hand. I really like the way Diana evolved and became one of my favorites in the collection.

When I first thought about this piece, I wanted Flora to sound effortless, like flowers blooming in spring. I thought this would be an easy composition… about ten days later, I finally got it, and it was the piece that took the longest to finish. I thought I would use a simple descending bass line, write a nice melody over the top, and, bam, done. But oh no, this piece gave me fits for days! Writing, rewriting, trying to figure out just the right progression in the descending bass line. So when you play this simple piece, remember that there was nothing simple about it…

Fortuna was the trickiest piece in the group, and therefore the most difficult to structure. Many composers reuse pieces throughout their careers, and I did something similar with Fortuna. I remembered a solo viola piece I had written in music school for my senior recital. I dug this old piece out of my stacks of handwritten compositions from the 1990s. Originally written as a solo viola piece called rondo, I had the opportunity to rewrite it by adding harmony and rhythm to the varying melodies within the rondo. Fortuna is the goddess of luck, fortune and fate, so the changing meters, keys, and rhythms make it the perfect composition for this goddess.

Luna was the first goddess in the collection. I developed this piece from a sync brief. A brief is a request for very specific music for TV, movies, or advertising. The company requested a mellow, tranquil piece for a special scene in a movie. I put together a piece that reminded me of looking out at a full moon on a calm night and submitted it to the brief. Needless to say, Luna was not chosen for the movie, but she kicked off the Roman Goddesses collection, and I will always thank her for that.

When I first started thinking about Minerva, I thought, okay, wisdom and learning. So I felt that using counterpoint, like the older pieces by Bach, would fit this one perfectly. I got out my old 18th- century counterpoint book from music school and started reading it again. I thought this would be difficult and take a long time to finish. Well, as these things go, this was the quickest piece I wrote in this collection. I was amazed at how easy it was to put together. Maybe I’ll pull out my 16th-century counterpoint book for the next collection!

Pax came from one of my daily improvisations. On my social media and for myself, I try to produce three to four improvisations per week. These are short pieces, 30 seconds to over a minute, that I improvise on the piano or violin. No retakes; whatever comes out is the composition for the day. This keeps me mindful of my recording techniques and makes me record regularly. After I have the music, I use video or photos from places I have traveled to create a short video to post on social media. Pax started as one of these improvs, and I chose it to develop into a full piece because it fit the idea of peace.

Tellus was the final composition in this group of piano solos. As I began, I wanted to think about earth, dirt, seeds, and growth. Before putting the piece together, I wrote two complementary melodies to build it around. Using these, I started with the melody in the left-hand and used octaves in the right hand as harmony floating above the melody. Then I switched, moving the melody to the right hand and keeping the long bass notes in the left hand. To finish, I returned to the original melodies and added more rhythm and harmony, creating a feeling of something ancient, grounded, and enduring.

Like all composers, I have a stack of music I’ve written but never quite completed. These may be good ideas worth keeping, but not right for the current project. Aurora is one of these pieces. I can’t really remember what I originally started this piece for, but as I was digging for ideas to begin Aurora, I found something I had put away a few years earlier. Originally, this piece was an improvisation moving from G major to C major. Looking back, I realized I had strong rhythmic and melodic ideas, but no coherent harmony to pull the piece together. After lots of tweaking, I ended up with what I consider a good representation of the goddess of dawn, hope, and awakening.

Like many composers, young and old, I sometimes write pieces I don’t really like. So I put them on a shelf and let them sit there. Every once in a while, when we’re looking for inspiration, we rewrite these pieces and turn them into something new. Venus is one of these pieces. I was looking through some old material and found a piece that fit this goddess perfectly. So I revisited an old piece called “Soft” and transformed it into a piece representing the goddess of love and beauty.