by Kile Smith | Jan 24, 2018 | Broad Street Review
[First published 23 Jan 2018 as “Life is a dream” by the Broad Street Review and reprinted by permission.] The two lanes merged as I slipped past the slower car to my right. Two other cars ducked in behind me. We were approaching a one-lane bridge, thin and high. The...
by Kile Smith | Dec 20, 2017 | Broad Street Review
First published in Broad Street Review 19 Dec 2017 as “Where N. Broad Meets the North Pole.” Beneath the railroad bridge that spans Broad Street just north of Glenwood, I was waiting for a Christmas tree, and so, I was waiting for Christmas, since Christmas doesn’t...
by Kile Smith | Nov 29, 2017 | Broad Street Review, Choral music, Music Composition
[First published in Broad Street Review 28 Nov 2017 and reprinted by permission.] It was 2015 and I was staring up at another deadline. The art-song group Lyric Fest, with whom I was enjoying a season as their first resident composer, had asked me to write a work for...
by Kile Smith | Oct 3, 2017 | Broad Street Review
First published in Broad Street Review 1 Oct 2017 as Following a road to “home.” In the few days and in the half-dozen times we had traveled the road from Hartenstein to Zwickau, he only now mentioned it. “I have always admired that single-standing tree,”...
by Kile Smith | Aug 1, 2017 | Broad Street Review, Composition
[First published in Broad Street Review, 1 Aug 2017, and revised] This is the part they don’t tell you when they tell you about composing. This is the part where every start to your piece is wrong, every note is wrong, every page you’re staring at is false and mocking...
by Kile Smith | May 12, 2017 | Broad Street Review, Classical music, Radio
[First published in the Broad Street Review 8 May 2017 as How to Write a Theme Song] By throwing everything out, that’s how. Anyway, that’s the answer I don’t give when I’m asked how I compose. Though it’s true, it sounds facetious, so here’s a recent example, if only...
