Orono `composer’ plans summer CD release

Barbara Smith does not think of herself as a composer. Although Smith has retired, the Orono resident still thinks of herself as a piano teacher. With the release this summer of her CD, “A Sense of Acadia,” Smith is redefining herself.

An inspiration to painters, photographers, writers and other artists over the years, Acadia National Park also was the place that let Smith tap into a deep well she never realized was inside her.

During the summer of 1998, Smith visited the places in the park and on Mount Desert Island that had always renewed, refreshed, inspired and calmed her. Instead of simply soaking up the beauty, she wrote down the music that swelled inside her. The experiment resulted in 12 piano solos Smith has recorded for the CD.

“My husband, Kent, gave me some blank staff music a couple of years ago,” recalled Smith on a recent sunny fall afternoon. “He suggested I try composing during my many summer visits to the island. I would sit in a beautiful place, most often near the water, although I don’t remember exactly where I was when I wrote every piece. …

“I have the gift of perfect pitch, so if I hear the melody of a song, I immediately know what key it is in and what the notes are. When I was in Acadia or around the island, I concentrated, really focused, and a melody came quite easily to me,” she said. “If I sat at the piano in my house and thought of Acadia, it wouldn’t have been as easy for me. There are just too many distractions.”

Once Smith had the melody down, she could hear and add the harmony. She deliberately kept the pieces “simple and in easy keys” so that her former students would be able to play them. Last month, the piano teacher turned composer sent her work off to a music publisher.

The pieces are not titled — Smith refers to them by number. They also are not distinctly separated on the recording. On the CD, the compositions run together as if they are one piece of music, instead of a dozen. The music evokes peaceful feelings from listeners and succeeds at setting a mood or as music therapy.

“I guess Number 6 is my favorite,” Smith confessed, sitting down at one of her two pianos. “It pulls at my heart strings. To me, it’s very moving and takes me right down there on the ocean. I remember that I wrote Number 7 at Somes Sound where a little waterfall flows in. It was late fall and the leaves were floating down into the water.

“Number 12 is a little rag,” she said, switching her hands to a new position on the keyboard. “I was sitting near Somes Sound and the sun was sparkling off the water like diamonds. It just sounded like that, a little rag, to me. Number 9 is the only one I wrote in a minor key. I wrote that one with fog and mist in mind.”

Two of Smiths three children live nearby. Daughter Laura Artesani lives next door and teaches in the music department at the University of Maine. Twin sons Steve and Shawn are not as musical as their mother. Shawn teaches math in Brookline, Mass., and Steve uses the surname McKay at his job as weather reorter at WLBZ-TV, Channel 2 in Bangor.

“This seems a natural extension of her career and her love for Acadia,” said McKay. “I think that when you put the CD on, you can see that shoreline at Acadia. You get a feeling that is very peaceful, very serene. I’m hearing Mom’s music in quite a few places.”

Smith credited son Steve with the idea of recording her compositions. He suggested she make a few tapes for friends, but John Dyer of Unintentional Music in Blue Hill, where the music was recorded, convinced Smith to make her music available to the public.

Darrell Storholt, who did the CD cover, is compiling a slide show of his photographs to accompany the music.

Smith is marketing “A Sense of Acadia” herself. Although she has placed CDs and cassettes in many area music and specialty shops, she has not yet put it in park gift shops. She hopes that next summer many tourists will leave Maine with her music in their suitcases, so they can be transported back to “God’s cathedral” whenever they play it.

“For me, being in Acadia is a worship experience,” Smith confessed. “I chose the title, `A Sense of Acadia,’ because being there fills all of my senses thoroughly with that beauty. … I want to write more next summer. I have a lot more music in me waiting to come out. At least, I hope I do.”

Smith will perform selections from “A Sense of Acadia” at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 28, at Borders Books, Music and Cafe.