Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukuh! This is the first STORMWatch to arrive in December. Why? In September and October of 1997, just 4 years after the birth of STORMWORKS, 22,000 STORMQuest CD's went out in a daring campaign to bring TRUEFIRE to "young" band literature!

With STORMWORKS only partially set adrift in the Great Winds of today's media-hyped world, many middle school band directors kept asking, "Steve, when are you going to give us Music like STORMWORKS?"

Well, my friends, STORMQUEST has ARRIVED!

STORMQUEST is 15 counterblows to the typical, mundane and pedantic, 15 answers to your hopes and longings and prayers, 15 well designed chances to uplift, inspire and help you in your noble task!

The Music on the STORMQUEST CD progresses from grade 1 to 2.5. Much of it was played in trial runs by 5th and 6th graders!

In the parts, players will find side-to-side fingerings, slide position suggestions, trill & alternate fingering options and more. EACH piece is accompanied by a Teaching Scenario which targets a specific learning objective. If this sounds like a TEACHING TOOL to you... it is! But then, listen to that CD again!

Years of great programming and learning are at your fingertips... an invaluable addition to your Library!

STORMQUEST is unique in SO many ways... not just for the middle-school, but for the high school as well! At less than $10 per minute for motivation-inspiring, adaptable-to-your-group Music, STORMQUEST is a wise investment. From sight-reading tools to great moments at a concert, STORMQUEST is packed with the emotion and drama, color and spectacle, power and purpose that inspires our young Musicians.

And... inspired by a recent meeting with orchestral directors, STRING parts are included on the space efficient, cost-effective STORMQUEST CD-ROM!

You might be thinking, "This is a great investment, but I've already used up my budget!" No problem. STORMQUEST is Timeless!

... At Life's Edge... during the Time of the Thunderbirds

Why I choose to write anything is always a function of the questions I am posed, the people I meet, the students who want to know, and the Future Music Educators who so nobly wish the best of themselves.

Yesterday, I went for my dawn walk. The route runs adjacent to a golf course, and the golf course is right in the landing path of the First Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base. I can not tell you how much I enjoy hearing the F-15E's and watching them. It reminds me of a Life I might have chosen, and sometimes wish I did.

Yesterday morning, I was treated to a private showing that began with screaming, whistling white F-16's blazing across the sky. Yes! The Thunderbirds were in town. Unbeknownst to me at that time, they were rehearsing for their Air Show.

At ridiculously fast speeds, these Thunderbirds were flying only 3 or 400 feet above my head, if that much! WOW! I was so exhilarated. I stopped, walked into the middle of the golf course, being sure to stay out of any golfer's way, and stood there, jaw dropped, watching these immense accomplishments of human technology buzz and whip and slide and whisper and rip through the air just above my head.

When I saw one of the pilots... yes, I was that close!... I had a moment of self-doubt overcome me. I began to question myself. "Why am I not one of The Thunderbirds? I was made for that stuff. It's Precise and Controlled, and Focused. Oh, how I wish mine was a Life made for Flying!"

While they circled far away, and because my neck was hurting, I looked down. There I saw insects, and dragonflies, and butterflies, not one of which was the same colour! There were bees of all varieties, and in the sky, flying not so fast as its human counterpart, I saw a pelican. Just above, in a different flight pattern, three beautiful hawks glided with effortless grace.

Tears swelled. I breathed deeper. Everywhere, the world was flying!

"What would have happened, if there were no such things as insects, or birds, or anything with wings? Would Man have taken to the air? Would I be watching The Thunderbirds right now? And what if there were no trees? Would we erect great buildings up into the sky? Would we have gone into space if there was no moon? And, oh my God, what if there were no Stars?"

Life really does call to us. Like Lao-Tzu, I stand in awe.

But now, back to my question. "Why was mine not a Life for Flying?"

The Teacher in me vibrated and I imagined myself back at Villanova, where just weeks ago, Ed Lisk and I ran a course for dedicated Band and Orchestra Directors of all ages. It amazes me that such fine people, like Paul Caliendo to name just one, should ask me a question. I am just a boy. In keeping with our mutual Hopes and longings, I imagined myself asking them the question as I'm sure they would have liked. "Why are you not Flying?"

Could there be anything better than Flight? Of course, the question is infused with the obvious answer. We ARE Flying, all of us, when we choose to face what is inside of us and boldly march into that Lifelong Quest of self-imposed Adventure.

I walked differently after that. I was a Composer. I knew I HAD chosen a Life of Flight, where the Human Spirit flies without bound into an Infinite only our imaginations and loving Heart can take us.

When I got back to the car, I listened to the STORMQUEST CD. I put on my Ray Bans... and yes, my friends, I was flying!
We are in MUSIC! What a great way to Fly! What a great way to choose Life... each and every day. Godspeed!

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." Albert Einstein

"He broke fresh ground-because, and only because, he had the courage to go ahead without asking whether others were following or even understood. He had no need for the divided responsibility in which others seek to be safe from ridicule, because he had been granted a faith which required no confirmation-a contact with reality, light and intense like the touch of a loved hand: a union in self-surrender without self- destruction, where his heart was lucid and his mind was loving." from Dag Hammarskjöld

It's Time, I think to share a story, one which is mentioned briefly on the back of the STORMWORKS... Chapter One CD. Hopefully, this will bring to light many things which at first seem disjunct. For instance, why is their a RECIPE section on the STORMPage? What does, "CHILDHOOD USED TO BE FOR CHILDREN™" mean?

It all has to do with food. When I composed ONLY FOR NOW, a 9-movement, ridiculously large 70-minute piece, scored for an orchestration Mahler and Wagner would have blushed to, it was motivated by something many would find small.

My grandmother made sandwiches. Sandwiches. Oh, she made much more, believe me... pasta, soups, cakes, pies, cookies... you name it. When I came home from school, and passed by her house... a convenient diversion before heading home for my Mom's great cooking... I was placed in a chair by an old, old table. In a pristine kitchen alive with the most pleasing of aromas, I was treated to something words fail to describe.

I realize now, as a man, what it was I tasted, what it was I marveled at, and could see in the construction, experience in the form, and feel in the texture.

It was Love.

Whenever I went to my grandmother's house, vats of food would be in the works! FOODWorks as it were! Growing up, I simply thought... "that's what grandmothers do... they cook!"

It wasn't until after my grandmother's early passing, that I learned the obvious. Father Rinaldi... (yes, true STORM Aficionados will recognize the name)... told me that my grandmother would regularly make batches of soup and pasta fagiole and bring it to people she didn't even know, people who were sick and in the hospital. She did this for years and years, and no one knew.

No One Knew.

Sometimes, I think we have gone so far, that we have missed the point of the simple, and ultimately profound. There are a small handful of college students out there joining the ranks of those who "judge" Music, determine its value based on a succession of harmonies or anything that is identifiable because of a "theory" course they took. Those ever-aging, but never-growing-up pseudo-teachers, who must never have experienced the unthinkable beauty of a sandwich are having their way. Bereft of innocence, they are passing on their ignorance to another generation of would be TEACHERS! You see, my friends, stupidity, unlike ignorance, is a learned behavior.

College students! Would-be Teachers! WAKE-UP... and taste the coffee! It's about FOOD, don't you get it?

Now, after her death, I picture my grandmother. She dons her smock, and with joy and sense of Mission, she takes out the aged pots used by her mother in the pursuit of the truly Noble. With something urged forth by the purest Giving, she adds this and then that, always knowing, that her work, guided and framed by an honest, sincere and prayerful heart, would be for someone she didn't even know. Short-lived and unheralded, her work is made only for the momentary and fleeting. And you ask what is Greatness?

This is what we need to learn to hear in Music. Not notes, rhythms, salt, pepper, harmony or olive oil... but Love.

Childhood used to be for Children... but not anymore. Too much is at stake... or should I say, steak? As always, it is a Time of Turbulence. Humanity itself is on the line. Time is in the Balance... and By Love Compelled, we are at the Hour of Shadows. It will take Courage... at this Wall of Fire! We must batter down the Forbidden Fortress, Defend Truefire at all costs because the Last Outpost of Freedom resides in all of us... and only in all of us.

So now you know why there's a RECIPE section on the STORMPage. It's a hint. For those who know, no explanation is necessary. For those who need to know, no explanation is possible. You simply, must one day, experience... Love.

It's hard to have a contest, I guess, where you bite into a sandwich... and determine it's... Love. I understand. But there is another world too... a world beyond "grade 6's" and "difficult" pieces, and contests and ratings, and all the many ungainly games. Is any student too "mature" for Love?

Music, like food, is not just one thing. Yes, a commonality of all food is that... you eat it! But differences are vast. Hot dogs. Peking Duck. McDonalds. Gnocchi LaVanna! Please don't get me wrong. There are times when a HOT DOG... at Yankee's Stadium, for instance, is one wailingly good thing! So, the "measure" must be different. The things we choose to judge and see in Music are often times only in the outward... despite claims to the contrary. BUT... It's not about protein, carbohydrates and fat... it's about Love.

Eat well. Listen well. Hear well... and feed your Loved ones to the best of your abilities, my friends.

My grandmother did. Godspeed.