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Robert F. Graboyes, MSHA, PhD

Senior Fellow for Health and Economics

NFIB Research Foundation | 1201 F Street NW, Suite 200 | Washington, DC 20004

202.314.2063 | bob.graboyes@nfib.org | www.NFIB.com/DrBob

Professor (health economics): VCU | UVa | GMU | GWU

Personal: rfgraboyes@gmail.com | www.robertgraboyes.com

 

Compositions

 

I began playing music in 1959 and performed professionally throughout college and graduate school. These days, I play professionally and for charitable organizations on occasion. I usually play pop, Latin, jazz, and classical. I especially enjoy doing Brazilian, Tin Pan Alley, British Invasion, Country, and American Folk. Among songwriters, George Gershwin, Antonio Carlos Jobim, the Beatles, and Paul Simon top my list. I also admire a long list of country songwriters – Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, John Hartford, and Jimmy Webb. I could also a long list of current writers, starting with those who have written for Alison Krauss. 

 

I compose songs. Sometimes the tunes stand alone, and sometimes I fit them to old poems. For the latter, I generally use pre-1923 poems to avoid copyright issues. Here are some examples, mostly performed almost all of these on a Roland KR107 digital piano, which generates all of the pianos, guitars, saxophones, brass, and other instruments. On many of these songs, I recorded multiple tracks, with different instruments, and overlaid them electronically.

 

Please note that these melodies are copyrighted: © by Robert F. Graboyes, 2007, 2010, 2011.

 

Original

·        White Sand, Blue Heart. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2007. (3:06)

·        Bahamalanna. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2007. (1:00)

·        The Hammer. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2007. (1:12)

·        Laurelyn, My Laurelyn. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2010. (5:13)

 

From Poems

·        The Road Not Taken. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2007. (2:15) Based on "The Road Not Taken," by Robert Frost (1874-1963).

·        The Terror of Death. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2007. (1:22) Based on "The Terror of Death," by John Keats (1795-1821). Brazilian style, since I thought the poem nicely describes saudade.

·        The Rainy Day. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2007. (1:56) Based on "The Rainy Day," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882). The words include the epigrammatic, "Into each life, some rain must fall," and I wrote the melody on one of the darkest, rainiest, windiest days I ever saw.

·        1st Latin Sketch. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2007. (1:40) Based on a Latin-American poem that may still be under copyright. So I'll just call this "1st Latin Sketch."

·        The Tiger. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2007. (1:36) Based on a "The Tiger," by William Blake (1757-1827). Blake's poems are more than a little odd, so I thought I'd go bluesy dissonance on this one.

·        The Rainbow. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2007. (0:55) Based on "The Rainbow," by William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

·        We'll Go No More a-Roving. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2007. (0:52) Based on "We'll Go No More a-Roving," by George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824).

·        The Highwayman. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2007. (7:45) Based on “The Highwayman,” by Alfred Noyes (1880-1958).

·        To Helen. © Music by Robert F. Graboyes, 2011. (1:57) Based on “To Helen,” by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).