Conversation Pieces (Ron O'Dell) played by Tom Brier

This was my second composition. I finished it in July 1992. The title came after I wrote the first strain as a standalone piece. It was simple and cute, so I thought it was more of a "conversation piece" -- liking the pun of "piece" also referring to a piece of music.

So I thought I should write four separate "conversation pieces" -- simple strains that also could be strung together to form a complete work. Well, the second strain, which was written as a separate piece, ended up being far more complex than the first, and the next two, which were written together, followed suit.

Nevertheless, I kept the title. I was on a roll when composing this. The second strain had the left-hand part written out without entirely before playing a note (the melody was written later). The third strain was written out in its entirety before playing a note. Sure wish I could do that today!

This also was the first music of mine I ever heard played (other than by the computer). Tom surprised me with a score for it (a much more primitive one than you see in this video, which he also made more recently, but still a readable score unlike the dot-matrix Amiga DMCS printout I had given him previously) at the 1994 Monterey Bay Ragtime Festival (now defunct), instructing me to attend his Saturday evening set. He played it there.

It was quite well received. In fact, it was requested twice more that weekend. An elderly lady approached me on Sunday and asked if she could give me a tip. I thought she meant advice, but instead she gave me a $20 bill, insisting that I accept it!

Tom later included this on his album "Skeletons" in a hand-played MIDI band arrangement.

Here in this video from May 2010, he hadn't played the tune in close to 10 years. This was after most people had gone to bed late Saturday night, May 1, during a ragtime party weekend at Chip Lusby's home ("Skunk Hollow") in Sutter Creek, California.