| "I am above
all a Romantic artist. Not only have my musical heroes been Romantic,
but the tenets of Romanticism - faith in the imagination as turnstile
to transcendence and preference for the subjective, the non-rational
and the mysterious - are central to my practice. Among recordings, 'Discovery'
is the clearest testament to my Romantic core as well as the one most
indicative of the breadth of my interests as composer and pianist.
Whether I'm combining the influence of Schubert
with reminders of cowboy songs ('Mariana's Waltz'), pursuing departures
from the world of Liszt and Wagner ('Chorale-Prelude,' 'Chorale No.
2') or ushering Mediterranean elements and reminiscences of jazz pioneer
Ferdinand 'Jelly Roll' Morton into the same salon ('Cynthia'), all is
at the service of the same Romantic intention.
Imaginative relationships with places are at
the heart of much of my work. Referring to myself as a 'terrain wrangler'
and a 'topographical rowdy bent upon revelation-through-landscape,'
I entertain intrigue with lands from the Ozark Plateau and Ouachita
Mountains to the Northwoods to the Upper Midwest; from the Piney Woods
of southern Mississippi and Alabama to the Intermountain West, and from
the northern Great Plains to central and southern Appalachia. Landscape
is the dependable home of my imagination.
Among my primary musical influences
are Chopin, Schumann and Schubert, but Beethoven, Satie, Albeniz, Ives,
Scott Joplin and Ernesto Nazareth can also be cited. American vernacular
music as varied as the work of Morton and mountain ballads and string
bands has also deeply affected me."
- David Thomas Roberts
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