Hi! William Rippey here. After careers as a social worker, security manager, history professor, and editorial consultant, I'm now retired and have some time to pursue my interest in composition. And with the development of MIDI sequencing and digital formats, I'm also able to share my music without spending a fortune.
Private instruction and university coursework along with a variety of performance opportunities have played a part in my musical development. While I have enjoyed performing over the years, my true musical interest has always been composition.
Influences on my music have been as eclectic as my career choices. My grandfather was a church composer; my father was a collector of bluegrass music; a close family friend was a classical violinist who loved Viennese waltzes, Mozart, and Hungarian folk music. Composers who have influenced me range from English virginalists to bossa nova songwriters and include Byrd, Bach, Handel, Rameau, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Chopin, Tarrega, Ernesto Nazareth, and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
My compositional focus is the creation of evocative instrumental works. Much of my music is difficult to classify. However, one listener did refer to some of it as "baroque elevator music." While I like the emotional effect of exotic elements, I tend to favor melodies with a classical feeling and prefer a polyphonic approach to composition with all the attendant incidental harmonic and melodic effects created in contrapuntal development. In any case, I try to reach the listener both intellectually and emotionally.
Any feedback, whether artistic or technical, sent to wrippo@comcast.net would be welcome.
