What inspired the “Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon” song cycle?
Was there an actual girl from there?. Yes. She was my first true love, and she enrolled as a student at the University of West Virginia, in Buchannon, West Virginia, and so that was a piece with her in mind. Why did you write it as a Ballet? From the inception of that I had intended to number each movement by number and Latin description of the tempo and feel. Andante Cantabile was the title of “Color My World” and it was Movement II, which comes out of the Overture, which is “Make Me Smile.” And I envisioned it as a piece that, because of its rhythmic quality, could be performed to dance. Do you think the “Ballet” allowed others in the group to move in a more expansive direction? Everybody was just doing their thing. See, the late ’60s/early ’70s was a period of great fertility. We were very fortunate to come onto the scene on the threshold of that renaissance. I think it started probably with the Beatles. All of a sudden pop music was in the throes of this incredible renaissance. We
