GRAB BAG
On this page you can find various selections that don't fit any of the other categories. Close your eyes and dive in!
On this page you can find various selections that don't fit any of the other categories. Close your eyes and dive in!
Seize the Day Petula Clark
In 1999, while on tour with Petula Clark on Sunset Boulevard, I wrote this song for Petula to sing with our cast as a fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. We sold 2000 copies and raised a good deal of money for a very worthy cause. (Music & lyrics by Lawrence Goldberg © 1999) |
A Test of Faith
I studied "serious" composition in college, and in 1987 I wrote a 20-minute chamber opera for a new music competition sponsored by the Jewish Music Commission of Los Angeles. My piece, "A Test of Faith", was awarded 1st prize. It depicts the story of the sacrifice of Isaac, from the Book of Genesis, and intertwines biblical narrative with the interpretive thoughts of both Abraham and Isaac (libretto by Marcia Hain Engel). Here is a live performance that I conducted for its 20th anniversary, with Jonathan Mack as Abraham, Jonathan Zur as Isaac, and Ron Li-Paz as the narrator/voice of God. (© 1987 by Lawrence Goldberg & Marcia Hain Engel) |
When They Work, They Play M. Stewart, Pittsburgh Sym.
When the "Let's Read a Story" cast appeared at a "Tiny Tots" concert with the venerable Pittsburgh Symphony, I wrote and orchestrated this song, which introduces and demonstrates the four major sections of the orchestra for children (a "Younger Person's Guide to the Orchestra", if you will). Maggie Stewart sings and Andreas Delfs conducts. (Music & lyrics by Lawrence Goldberg © 1989) |
Gettin' Together
Even though I studied classical piano and serious composition in college, what I really aspired to be early on was a singer-songwriter, like Billy Joel. In the mid-80s, my friend Mitch Feldman (a medical student) was also writing his own songs, and he showed me his recording apparatus: a tiny Casio keyboard, a 4-track cassette recorder, and a "drum machine" the size of a calculator. I was smitten! He let me use his stuff for a day to record this song which I had recently written. Sometimes it's amazing what you can do with very crude equipment! (Music & lyrics by Lawrence Goldberg © 1984) |
Endings
By the following year I had acquired my own slightly-less-crude equipment, and recorded more and more songs, most of which are too embarrassing to share! (I was a very angst-ridden young man.) This one's still angsty, but not too embarrassing! I even borrowed a technique from The Beatles and used a backwards loop that floats in and out. (Music & lyrics by Lawrence Goldberg © 1985) |