I See You Still
F.179
A folk/rock song for voice and guitar, blending atmospheric rain and birdsong recordings from Kailua Kona with electric and classical guitar textures. Text by the composer.
Listen
Program Notes
Be transported to another world via the music of I See You Still. The rain that starts the recording and the bird calls that end the recording are from my back yard here in Kailua Kona—both wonderful soundscapes that I have the privilege to hear every day.
The Text
I See You Still
I feel the clouds press on the fears of my mind;
but I see you still, I see you still.
I feel the thunder start within my heart;
I see you still, I see you still.
I run through the streets, buried in my mind,
towards some home I’d hope to find,
far from the city’s desert heat—
I run from that storm—please show me the way
to rest my mind and heart today,
to escape and reach the morn!
I feel the sunrise warm the hope in my heart;
and I see you still, I see you still.
—Christopher Lee Fraley
About This Recording
I don’t often write popular music, but with some encouragement from a friend, I took a piece that I started in college and finished it off, including playing all of the instruments myself, save for the electric guitar solos by Stephen Cline.
This song has a long history, dating back to college where the structure and lyrics were essentially there. During my Harmony 102 class, our teacher had us all write something (I think we had to include something like 20 measures of 4-part voice leading and some dominant seventh chords, plus a few other requirements), and we then performed our pieces for the class. That was the initial “pen-to-paper” moment (for guitar, bass, piano, and voice), even though I knew the final version would be different. So that paper copy and the original idea for the piece rattled around for another 25 years.
Even then, it was a long process taking this mostly completed idea (at least in my head) and polishing it into its now final form… about two years of effort in my largely non-existent spare time.
One interesting example of translating something from “one’s head” to “paper” is figuring out the proper tempos. In general, I know from experience that what I hear in my head is likely too fast. So to determine the proper tempos, I started by recording the guitars and a vocal track, and (big surprise) quickly discovered that my brain’s tempos were way too fast, making either the guitars or vocals sound awkward!
Modern technology was a great help: I was able to record my best guess, then later adjust the tempos after the fact, having software speed up or slow down tempos of my recordings to find the sweet spots. This was particularly helpful in the transitions between sections. When I was happy with the tempos, I then re-recorded everything at these new tempos.
Recording the vocals took the most time and involved at least four complete cycles of throwing out the old and re-recording from scratch the new. From tempo changes to lyric changes, it all took time to distill.
A fun fact: the opening acoustic guitars aren’t acoustic guitars! While I own a classical guitar (featured in the first guitar solo), and it does join the “acoustic” guitars starting at the 2nd verse, I don’t (yet) own a steel string acoustic guitar. But it’s amazing what one can do with an electric guitar, some determination, and modern technology.