Listen to Cy’s Music Performed by Others

On February 13, 2007, an Alec Wilder Centennial event was held at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Pianist Tony Caramia peformed along with Soprano Karen Holvik. The first of these MP3s has Tony Caramia and Karen Holvik performing Cy Walter’s “Time and Tide”; the second has Tony Caramia performing Cy’s 1965 arrangement of Alec Wilder’s “While We’re Young” along with Bill Dobbins’ 2004 arrangement of the same song.

Time And Tide

An original composition of Cy’s, accompanied by lyrics written by Alec Wilder, this beautiful 1961 ballad was almost lost to posterity. A search by Virginia pianist Alex Hassan of the Library of Congress’ collection found only a lead sheet for the piece. Cy’s family’s only copy of the sheet music, lent to superb pianist Buddy Barnes, was lost after Buddy’s death. (Fortunately, however, Buddy’s recording of the song was posthumously released by Audiophile records on Buddy’s “Talking With My Pal” (Audiophile CD 294)). Miraculously, the sheet music was again found when Mark Walter, after doing a Google search on Alec Wilder in the hope that one of Wilder’s fans might have it, contacted Judy Bell of The Richmond Organization (“TRO”).

Although TRO publishes much of Wilder’s other music, it did not publish “Time and Tide”; and Judy Bell, in searching for it in TRO’s files, was surprised to find a single copy of the sheet music. (Judy hypothesized that it had been given to TRO by Alec Wilder’s lyricist, Bill Engvick, who, although past ninety, recently wrote terrific new lyrics to some of Wilder’s music; these were performed to a packed house at a 2006 New York City Wilder concert.) Judy Bell generously gave this copy to Mark Walter, with the consequence that Cy’s and Alec’s “Time and Tide” has risen again and is still here to be enjoyed.

While, sadly, no recording of Cy’s playing this gorgeous piece exists, a journalist once wrote of hearing Cy play it — and then suggesting to Cy that he would love to hear it played by an orchestra. Cy reportedly replied, “So would I!”. Here we have Rochester, New York’s Eastman School of Music Professor of Piano Tony Caramia, along with truly-talented Soprano and Assistant Professor of Voice Karen Holvik, performing “Time and Tide” at the 13 February 2007 Eastman Alec Wilder Centennial Concert.

Performed by: Tony Caramia (piano) and Karen Holvik- Eastman Alec Wilder Centennial Concert, February 13, 2007.

While We’re Young

Two versions of this Alec Wilder standard are offered here for your enjoyment — the first being of Cy Walter’s 1965 arrangement, as performed by Rochester, New York’s Eastman School of Music Professor of Piano Tony Caramia; and the second being a 2004 arrangement of the song by Eastman Music Professor of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media Bill Dobbins, also performed by Tony Caramia (played back-to-back, in the same music clip offered here)

We are fortunate to have Cy Walter’s arrangement of the piece due to an unpublished score found in the family’s collection, and shared elsewhere on this site. Both of the performances presented here occurred at the 13 February 2007 Eastman Alec Wilder Centennial concert. The song itself is rightfully considered a classic, having been recorded by numerous artists over the years and perhaps most notable for its lovely lyric, “Songs were meant to sing/While we’re young …”.  The beautiful lyrics were penned by Bill Engvick, a terrific artist who often collaborated with Alec Wilder in composing marvelous songs.

Cy’s own performance of this piece, as recorded in a solo version and in a duo piano version with Stan Freeman, can be found on the main music page.

Performed by: Tony Caramia (piano) – Eastman Alec Wilder Centennial Concert, February 13, 2007