Piano and instrumental music for reflection and quiet time. A gentle, timeless and lyrical style; music that touches the heart.

About the music

This collection of instrumental music for reflection and quiet time can be experienced by both children and adults alike. While some of the music on this CD was originally written for children, it is music that both children and adults can respond to; music for reflection or quiet time, music as a vehicle for contemplation, peace and relaxation; music of the heart, music to nourish the spirit. Adults will hear the deeper layer of the music as both a reflection and container for their inner world. The music can be viewed as both lullaby and extended meditation. Listen, reflect, relax and enjoy.

Apart from the piece, ‘Resting’, originally from the ‘Meditation on Love’ CD, and ‘Blessings for the Newborn’, from the CD ‘Dream by the River’, which have been re-imagined for this CD, all the other music either has been written for specific people - friends and family – or are new works, and have not been shared in public before now.

‘Prayer for Leigh’ was written for my friend and sister, Leigh Williams Gardiner, on the occasion of her commissioning as Bishop’s priest to the Parish of Rylstone Kandos.

‘Sienna’s Lullaby’ and ‘Lullaby for Alina’ were written for my friends Francesco and Maria Placanica on the birth of their two daughters.

‘Persephone Sleeps Deeply before Awakening the Spring’ was written for my friends Fiona Burnett and Patrick Kuhn on the birth of their daughter, Persephone.

‘Hymn to the Mountains’ is my offering to the beautiful place in which I live, in all of its colours and changing moods.

‘Places with high levels of natural beauty’ is for my friend Garry Crockett, who gave me this work’s title, and the title of this CD.

Acknowledgements

A number of people provided much appreciated support as I was writing, arranging and producing these works – people who listened to earlier versions or pieces as they were in development, or who provided moral support and encouragement. You know who you are, and I thank you.

For musical advice and technical expertise, my warmest thanks to Llew Kiek, who is a joy to work with.

As always, my thanks to Karen Curran of Unicorn Graphics for her creative and design expertise.

Peta Williams Springwood, 2016

Instrumental music for the body, mind, heart and spirit. Music for reflection, contemplation, breathwork, relaxation, quiet time, meditation and dreaming.

For some time Australian composer Peta Williams has been interested in music as both a reflection and container for our inner world. This album of instrumental music can be used as either music for your personal inner journey – how you are thinking and feeling; what is happening for you in this moment - or simply music for quiet time. This CD can be used effectively as a tool in breathwork, in meditation, with massage, for relaxation, contemplation or reflection, or to simply enjoy.

Track details are:

1. Being – we spend so much of our lives being busy ‘doing’. This opening track is about ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’; being who we truly are. It is music to ground us, to remind us of being our authentic selves.

2. Going with the flow – we often struggle where life is taking us, and sometimes that kind of questioning and re-assessment is what we need to do at the time; at other times it is about surrendering to the moment, to the path, to where the flow of the river is taking us.

3. This resonating breath – this piece is to allow the spaces between the moments; to allow us to breathe, and to feel what resonates within our body, mind, heart and spirit.

4. Resting – this piece acknowledges our need to rest.

5. Yearning – although we might choose to live in the moment, there will always be rememberings, and yearnings. This piece acknowledges our yearnings.

6. Solace – a place of comfort.

7. Gently the night dances, softly – the darkness of the night can often seem to be negative, but in fact the softness of the night can be warm, enveloping, private and comforting.

8. Meditation on Love – acknowledging the love in our lives – of self, of friends, family, partnership, our earth and environment. As big or as intimate as we choose.

9. Finding a place of peace – I wanted to end this CD with a place of peace. I think that in moments of our lives we sometimes reach this state, then drift somewhere else, and then find it again; an ongoing journey. A place to be who we truly are, in keeping with the opening of the album.

May the music nourish your whole being.

Music and arrangements copyright Peta Williams. Piano played by Peta Williams. Instruments realised by Peta Williams using Sibelius and Garritan software. CD Cover and label designed and illustrated by Unicorn Graphics, NSW Australia

Peta Williams is a musician and composer who has a particular interest in the use of music as a tool in healing, relaxation and meditation. She is based in the Lower Blue Mountains, near Sydney in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. She is also a trained Music Therapist.

‘I have seen tremendous results from using Peta Williams’ music in conjunction with my breathwork sessions as a tool for deep transformation. Her music takes the listener on an beautiful emotional journey which is perfect for my work. I strongly recommend her music not only to practitioners working in Natural Therapies but also to anyone with a desire to listen to music written from the heart.’

Rebecca Geach, Airborne Breathwork May 2011

The original music for the play, 'Weaving Water', by Ludmila and Michael Doneman. This instrumental music demonstrates the composer's lyrical, gentle and timeless style and also features her sensitive and eloquent piano playing.

The music for 'Weaving Water' started as a gift for my friend, Ludmila Doneman, on the occasion of her 70th birthday. The play 'Weaving Water', originally a one-woman show devised by Ludmila and her husband Michael as part memoir and part metaphor for life stories, was first performed under the name '70' in March 2015, and was further developed into the play 'Weaving Water' premiered by Ludmila and Michael in Brisbane, Australia, on 18 September 2015.

Although only 10 minutes in total, the music was specifically written to act as 'punctuation points' within the performance, and as a means of reflection. The music acts as a metaphor for the weaving of stories, the connections we make with each other, and the flow of life.

The four ‘punctation points’ are:

Section 1 – Reflections (after the theme for ‘Dona Rosita, the Spinster’, 1977). Reflections on the past, the stories, lead to the present moment.

Section 2 – The weaving begins Journeying. Between stories. Weaving our stories. Women’s voices. The flow of water, of life, of story.

Section 3 – The flow of life, of story, of coming home Water flowing, moving, changing. The weaving and the interflow of our lives, our stories, continues. Belonging. We come home.

Section 4 – We weave and we are woven. Weaving, woven, flowing, resolution. We are made of stories.

'Quiet Time’ is a set of instrumental songs for children or the child in you, for dreaming, relaxing, and being at rest.

'Quiet Time’ is a set of instrumental songs for dreaming, relaxing, and being at rest.

While this album is initially directed to children, and includes some commissions and other music specifically written for children, you will find that the music is not just for children. If you buy or receive this CD for your child, you might be drawn also to the imaginings, wonderings and feelings that the music evokes, as well as noting its capacity to provide a vehicle for reflection, contemplation and relaxation. Young children will respond to the music for their ‘quiet time’; older children and adults will hear the deeper layer of the music as both a reflection and container for their inner world.

1. Reflections (Song for Sebastian) was commissioned by Kerry Wyburg for her grandson.
2. Misty Mountains comes from Peta Williams' debut album, 'Dream by the River: Music for Dreaming'.
3. Gentle Heart is what it is.
4. Music for Dreaming also comes from Peta Williams' debut album, 'Dream by the River: Music for Dreaming'.
5. Shirley's Dreaming was written for Peta's mother, Shirley, for her 75th birthday.

The companion album to 'Quiet Time' is 'Having Fun'.

Music and arrangements copyright Peta Williams. Piano played by Peta Williams. Other instruments realised digitally. CD Cover and label designed and illustrated by Karen Curran of Unicorn Graphics, NSW Australia ((www.unicorngraphics.com.au)

‘My daughter was travelling through the country by car with her 3-year-old daughter, Molly, listening to music on the CD player. Molly drifted off as the CD ended and my daughter chose another CD. She was most surprised and delighted when young Molly cried out – ‘No, I want to hear the quiet music!’ (referring to ‘Quiet Time’). Elizabeth Read, Annandale

'Having Fun' is a set of instrumental songs for children for gentle and joyful play-time - clapping, dancing, running, jumping, and playing percussion.

'Having Fun' is a set of instrumental songs for children for gentle and joyful play-time.

The music lends itself to clapping, dancing, running, jumping, and playing percussion instruments. It allows for your and your child’s imagination to create your own responses to the music. The music is deliberately strongly rhythmic with simple harmonies and delightful melodies that create a container for children to express themselves in movement and play. It is a companion album to ‘Quiet Time’, a set of instrumental songs for dreaming, relaxing, and being at rest.

1. Clapping Song (Song for Cameron) was commissioned by Kerry Wyburg for her grandson Cameron. Lovely strong rhythms for both slow and faster clapping.
2. Having Fun: great for learning how to clap and stop, for example, clap clap clap rest.
3. Now I am One (Song for Nina) was written for Nina's first birthday. It is joyful and exuberant and great for movement or simply listening.
4. Run Like the Wind - a fun song to run off some energy, and also great for clapping, jumping, dancing.
5. Joyful Play-time (Song for Johannes) - another great piece for clapping or playing your own percussion instruments (saucepans included!).
6. Clapping Song (Reprise) - to complete the album.

Album cover design by Karen Curran at Unicorn Graphics (www.unicorngraphics.com.au).

This song was written in the first part of 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, and many of us were living in the first of what became mandatory lockdowns. Words are by Kitty O’Meara, who lives in the United States and whom I have never met, but who has graciously allowed me, and many others, to set the words from her prayer, ‘In the time of Pandemic’, to music.

As I update this note in September 2022, much has changed since April 2020. And yet much hasn’t. The coronavirus COVID-19 is still well and truly with us. The tensions between many of us over whether to take the vaccine or not, whether to continue to wear masks or not, how best to manage the virus in our overloaded health care systems, still remain. I wrote at the time that this song won’t fit for everyone. People who are isolated at home and who are deeply lonely, or living with domestic violence, or people who are homeless, won’t have cause to celebrate the isolation that lockdown caused many of us to stay at home. People who are trying to work from home as well as home-school children might feel too frustrated to enjoy the thought of staying at home, as might people who have lost their jobs and wonder how they can survive.

I look back at this song a little over two years later and wonder whether, now, if it was all just a fantasy, the possibility of healing the world and living in hope. Of course some of it was fantasy. But it is also important to not give up on hope. As this song came about because of how I felt at the time, the following words are therefore replicated from what I wrote on this website in April 2020.

Please note that you can also listen to this song and see the words on Youtube at the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4iDKIo6tsk

Notes from April 2020

Words by Kitty O'Meara l Music composed and arranged by Peta Williams l Lead vocal: Leigh Gardiner (recorded in isolation) l Harmony vocals: Leigh Gardiner and Graeme Gardiner (recorded in isolation) l Piano played by Peta Williams l Other instruments realised digitally by Peta Williams l Mixed and mastered remotely by Andy Busuttil, Blue Mountain Sound (in isolation) https://bluemountainsound.com.au/

This song was written in the first part of 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. Words are by Kitty O’Meara, who lives in the United States and whom I have never met, but who has graciously allowed me, and many others, to set the words from her prayer, ‘In the time of Pandemic’, to music.

Why are so many of us drawn to her words, her prayer, at the time of the COVID-19 corona virus pandemic? What is it that resonates so with us?

For me, it is because her words offer a sense of optimism and hope. Despite the horror and the great loss of life across the world we have experienced in the last few months of the pandemic, despite the grief and disappointment as our lives are turned upside down, there is reason to hope that we will come through this and be better people, and contribute to healing the earth that gives us sustenance and life.

This song won’t fit for everyone.

People who are isolated at home or living with domestic violence; people who are homeless, won’t have cause to celebrate the isolation that is causing many of us to stay at home. People who are trying to work from home as well as home-school children might feel too frustrated to enjoy the thought of staying at home, as might people who have lost their jobs and wonder how they can survive.

And yet.

For those of us who are living safely at home, and despite our own disappointments and struggles and feelings of frustration and grief around what might have been but cannot be, I hope that Kitty’s words and my music might bring solace and optimism so that we will get through this difficult time together, and come out the other end having thought differently about how we can better live our lives, nourish our spirits, and how we can support the earth that gives us sustenance and life.

The possibility of hope.

Note: This song has not been created for material or commercial gain. It has been created out of love.

Words

In the Time of Pandemic - A prayer by Kitty O’Meara

At the time of the COVID-19 corona virus pandemic, 2020 My prayer.... “And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and grew gardens full of fresh food, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently. "And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal. "And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed."

Kitty O'Meara

https://the-daily-round.com/category/spirit-level/