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Jim Andris' Music

You can contact me through my Facebook page.

"Classical" Music

For the 50 years of my adult life, I have attempted to master various classical piano pieces, starting with Beethoven's Pathetique" in the early 1960s. I have at one time or another played through the Beethoven Sonatas, Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, Chopin's Piano Ballades, Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, and Shostakovich's Preludes. My classical music listening tastes are much broader. My partner Stephen and I had regular season tickets to the St. Louis Symphony, Opera Theatre St. Louis, and Union Avenue Opera Theatre for decades. I did occasionally also compose compositions which could be considered "classical."

I still give an occasional concert, and always include classical piano music in the presentation.

Facebook Videos

Back in 2020, in the middle of the first Covid epidemic, when we were all huddled in our apartments, afraid to go out, I decided I could do something to lighten the atmosphere. Using the video camera in my iPhone, I made a series of piano/voice covers for about 30 old standard tunes from the '20s to the '70s, and I posted them on Facebook. A lot of people got a kick out of my one-man amateur talent show, and so I decided to list the all here if you want to go back just one more time.

Rags and ragtime songs

For an extended period in my life, at least the last 30 years, I have been a ragtime piano player and composer. The Friends of Scott Joplin have published a folio of my ragtime compositions, and Oleg Mezjuev has also published midi files of them on The Swedish Ragtime Home Page.

In the Ragtime section of this website, I have published pdf files for all of the twelve compositions printed in the folio: Ragtime Rendezvous: Piano Rags and Songs by Jim Andris. There are also some video and sound files available.

Musical Review

I also resurrected a musical review that I completed in 1991, and set out to put mp3 and pdf files of it on the web. It contains nearly an hour of original music by me, and is nearly two hours in length, counting the monolog and excerpts from various popular songs, used to anchor the events being described to a point in time and a feeling tone, and sometimes a message.

I judge this musical review to be of good quality and historically, personally and musically significant; whether my judgment about this is sound, however, is not up to me alone. This is the story of my coming of age and romantic development as a gay man. It is adult stuff, but I believe not prurient. The main point is the gay romantic development and ultimate settling down with a life partner, not the references to gay sexual intimacy.

My Songs

When I retired September 1, 2003, I set a goal for myself to publish all my song lyrics on my website. I did accomplish that goal.

More recently, I have set out to make mp3 files for the music and provide pdf files for the sheet music for many of my compositions. With nearly 120 songs to record, this is a big order. As of May, 2011, I have made mp3 files available for 40 of my songs, and, thanks to help from brother, Tom, I have 7 youtube videos.

The songs are grouped into categories which you see in the menu to the left. As you click on each menu item, it expands to reveal links to all the songs in that category.

Universal folk songs

In 1986 I published a cassette recording of 11 of my songs which were recorded at Music Masters Studio by Greg Trampe. Greg also provided some of the occasional drums, guitar, synthesizer and strings you hear on some of the tracks, especially "I Am A Priest."

Wahaba Heartsun gave my cassette tape of songs the designation "universal folk" when she reviewed it many years ago. Below is a listing of the eleven songs on this cassette, now also available as a CD.

1. A very sophisticated child could escape to another world where blue-eyed unicorns sleep in trees and play with the star breeze caressing their manes. This song was written the same year as Beautiful Planet. I love Unicorn , also listed as a children's song. A lyrical portrait of the gentle, magic, silver beast.
2. The Rainbow Warrior is a long sea chantey about the efforts of the crew of this ship, members of Greenpeace, who took to sea to expose the flagrant killing of grey whales in eastern Siberia. I read about the exciting adventures of The Rainbow Warrior in the Greenpeace magazine in 1983. I then wrote this song. Kids love "Well, red and orange and yellow and green and blue, purple, indigo. We can stop all the killing, if we'd just be willing to let all the animals know that we really do love them so."
3. I took a trip west by myself in the late summer of 1982. While I was visiting Glacier National Park, I wrote Beautiful Planet . The spiraling melody just came to me while descending the Going to the Sun Road.
4. What can I say? If you ever get a chance, you should listen to He Just Wanted To Be Himself. . I had one P-FLAG mother tell me, "I never really understood my gay son until I heard your song." What a compliment!
5. As a part of this same trip, I wrote an ode to our Earth, a Blue-Green Ball , lamenting Her torture through war and environmental distruction.
6. I always thought that had I manage to record and get airplay for the Microcomputer Blues in the middle 1980's when it was written, it would have been an instant success. I know that wherever I have performed it the audience stomps and shouts, and once they have heard it, people request it again.
7. The United States of Earth. I sold this song, with a title change, to the World Federalists society. They hold all the rights to it, except for my personal distribution.
8. I Am A Priest encourages us to look to the East, overcome our indecision, find that new, transforming fire, and start to fan it.
9. I wanted to create a bubble gum feeling for Darlin', Darlin', Darlin' . Inspired by Stephen Nichols, my current partner, he did make me "feel lighter than a feather."
10. Well, this could be a generic love song too. I turned out to be mistaken about Jim, however, who turned out not to be A Little Piece Of Heaven, after all.
11. My parents and I achieved a major healing in our trip to Agawa Canyon . Three sonnets on loving and not judging. The tape version is instrumental only.