Amalthea

Copyright 2005 by James Friesen

Amalthea is the name of a nymph in a Greek myth about Jupiter. It is also the name given to a small Jovian moon. There is no special meaning here, but I am an amateur astronomer, and I decided to name some of my piano solo pieces after heavenly bodies. I don't have a song that can evoke the majesty of the great planet Jupiter, but perhaps some of my piano solos can bring to mind the stark and solitary orbits followed by that planet's rocky moons on their billion year journeys. Will they be cast off into the dark, many years hence, or spiral into the gravity well, to be crushed in the uncharted depths of the Jovian atmosphere?

The piece itself is simple and moody. I seldom compose cheerful songs! Hopefully that is changing now that I have some new tools to play with. The sounds themselves inspire me, and the piano has a very lonely sound to me, so my compositions reflect that.