|
|
’February is always a crazy month,’ American organist and marketer, Christian Cang cuesta, told Harmonicham CEO and best friend, Tristan Latchford, back when their friendship was first forming in 2022. Tristan didn’t comment but remarked in later years, ‘I didn’t believe you, but you’re 100 percent right: February is MAD.’ February 2026 was no exception, and we have experienced a series of setbacks, such as the writer’s block that comes from composing great music or the storm of the decade cancelling a train.
However, we are still committed to delivering the highest quality music to you in the upcoming months, as these setbacks do not derail anything that we do here at Harmonicham. If you would like to help support our music, you can, as always, check out our shop and purchase a CD (or a few for your friends)— In the meantime, read on to hear the madness that took place this month! |
|
|
The cover to our album, An Organist's Storybook, adapted to describe the weather that hit New York and delayed a recording session. |
|
|
|
Highlight: The Fugue That Took Forever |
fugō, fugāre, fūgī, fugātus— to put to flight, to chase away; the Latin derivative to the English word, ‘fugue’ (A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin by John F. Collins, p. 51-3) |
The dedication, title, and subtitle for Tristan's latest organ composition. |
Friday, the 20th of February, 2026: Christian Cang cuesta had just finished a rehearsal with his rabbi at Temple Israel in Lawrence, New York. He had some downtime, and so, he checked his phone and found a long-awaited file, labelled ‘Fuguum-Perpetuum 2.pdf’, from Tristan Latchford. With a smile, he quickly opened the file to find 17 pages of freshly engraved organ music. Christian made sure to send a snarky text: ‘Of course this had to be right before my Shabbat service… (That’s not a complaint. It’s an observation.)’ Tristan reacted with a laughing emoji. Tristan first mentioned this composition to Christian in a handwritten letter on the 14th of February, 2022, on the occasion of the latter’s 21st birthday. Unfortunately, Christian couldn’t find the letter in his archives, and at this point, the letter has been, at the very least, badly damaged. Christian recalls the letter as having the sentiment of, ‘being for a man of virtue, as yourself,’ and Tristan included the first few notes of the piece for his delight; little did either of them know that this piece would take over four years to compose. |
|
The letter that Tristan sent to Christian on the 14th of February, 2022 contained an excerpt of what would eventually become the Perpetual Fugue. The letter has been damaged and lost to time, but here is a photo of the manuscript showing how much music was in the letter. |
Four years: during all that time, entire wars have taken place. Governments have changed in both of their native countries. The two of them graduated university. The two of them forged friendships to various degrees of closeness and witnessed other relationships wither away to various degrees of spectacle and passion. Concert after concert, email after email, phone call after phone call— so much has happened.
And now, it was on Christian’s iPad, at the synagogue organ, since he wanted to give it a whirl. Placing his phone by the keys, he recorded the first two pages of the piece on the softest stops on the organ to send to Tristan before tapping out, having a lot of fun as he was reading through it. Later that evening, in his residence, Christian leafed through all of the pages, hearing the music in his mind and analysing it all with a grin across his face. |
Christian sightreads the Perpetual Fugue in Temple Israel. |
’The piece is a fugue’ [pronounced ‘FYOOG’], Christian remarked. ‘So, there’s a conversation between different musical voices and a recurring theme that gets shared between them. While most fugues allow space between the different entrances of the theme, Tristan has the theme somewhere in every moment of this ENTIRE piece. It’s almost like the piece is saying the way to maintain one’s virtue is through consistency and discipline, to keep on going no matter what. It gets stuck in the head quite easily!
'Tristan also likes to quote various pieces in his own music. I suspect that there are a few references to some of the more "heroic" works in Classical music. As I was studying the score, I found motifs that reminded me of the last movement of Beethoven's Third Symphony and the first movement of Mahler's Second Symphony. There also appear to be rhythmic figures and structural considerations that remind me of Tristan's great protagonist piece, The Song of the Youthful Explorer, from both of its sections, Valleys and Tides.
'Of course, I could be wrong about all of this. Tristan can illuminate me further later on.' |
|
This video is a great visualisation of what a fugue is: each of the three voices are represented by different colours, and each of these voices are melodic in character, producing a sort of conversational effect. What makes this piece a fugue, though, is the recurrence of the theme in the different voices, with the theme being represented by the solid shapes as opposed to the stars. The handwritten excerpt from Tristan's manuscript shown earlier in the article is the recurring theme in the Perpetual Fugue. |
Christian also felt there was a more sentimental pathos to the work: ‘The theme remains constant despite the treatment of all the musical material around it. Sometimes, the music gets darker than the typical minor mode, and other times, it gets brighter than the typical major one. It’s as if despite all the ups and downs that comes from living in one’s twenties, the friendship between Tristan and myself remained steadfast.’ And now, after several years of friendship, the composition was finally in his hands.
83 percent of the composition, that is: out of 12 total sections in the piece, Tristan sent 10 of them.
Stay tuned for Tristan’s post about the grueling, hair-pulling compositional process on his Buy Me a Coffee page, which will be released when he has the complete composition for Christian. The piece is part of the upcoming album, Portrait of a Hero, so you will be able to hear it yourselves sometime this year! |
Cang cuesta in Cabin Fever |
Sunday, the 22nd of February, 2026: Christian Cang cuesta was watching the Closing Ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics when he received a text from the Amtrak train that takes him between New York City and Baltimore, Maryland. ‘[Your train number] has been CANCELLED. Your trip may qualify for rebooking…’ Christian stopped reading, gave a sigh, and turned his eyes back to the television screen.
Christian was supposed to head down to Baltimore on Monday the 23rd, spending the last week of the month recording the second half of his upcoming album, Portrait of a Hero. Unfortunately, that also happened to be the height of a forecasted blizzard, and despite his willingness to brave the storm, travel all throughout Long Island was cancelled and a curfew was instated. Rescheduling for later in the week would have removed nearly all of his practise time at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, not to mention that there would likely be an upcharge given the demand for travel. As such, Christian accepted that he would have to replan the entire trip. |
|
Christian's shovel, partially buried in the first blizzard warning on Long Island in a decade. He did the sidewalk while his father and brother worked on the driveway. |
|
|
’I was supposed to lead a jam session featuring Jewish music at my old position at the Johns Hopkins Hillel,’ Christian said. ‘Not to mention that I wanted to visit a dessert shop that gave me a birthday coupon— the strawberry cheesecake bubble waffle lasts only for the month of February. The movie theatre also had popcorn with dried strawberries and white chocolate for the month.’ Love may have been in the air of Baltimore, but 24 inches of snow was in the air for Long Island.
Along with the other men in his family, Christian shoveled the 2-car driveway and the sidewalk that wrapped around the corner of the block. Throughout the two hours, he told himself that it was a small price to pay for the abundance of ‘solidified Canadian tears’. [Disclaimer: that last comment is made in the spirit of playful banter and not out of malice, and is the sole responsibility of Christian Cang cuesta and not Harmonicham Productions.] |
|
|
|
But Christian was especially looking forward to time in Baltimore so that he could break out of the confines of his home office for the past month. Those of you who read last month’s edition of the Harmonicham Monthly may recall that he was learning the computer programming languages of HTML and CSS in the month of January and intended on completing SuperSimpleDev’s Javascript course on YouTube before the February installment of the Harmonicham Monthly.
‘I planned on going at a pace of about a lesson a day, which was fantastic at first, since I found the material quite easy,’ Christian said. ‘I learned Java about a decade ago, and a lot of the concepts were coming back to me. But then, after the first third of the course, that’s when things got real.’
The lessons drifted into unfamiliar territory and also lasted more than an hour each at times. Maintaining the lesson-a-day pace turned his commitment from two hours a day to six hours a day. ‘I felt like I was going insane.’ Christian gave a chuckle as he said that. ‘Maybe I should have slowed down.’ |
|
Christian jotting down notes from SuperSimpleDev's JavaScript course. |
At the time of the Harmonicham Monthly’s release, Christian has finished watching the 22.25-hour long YouTube video and took 163 pages of notes. All he has left to do is finish the remaining exercises provided in the course. ‘I’m definitely going to take a week-long break so that I can properly absorb the material. I may not even use all of it when it comes to renovating our website,’ Christian remarked. ‘I really ought to get away from the computer screen and spend some time outdoors, like I hoped to do in Baltimore.’
Referring to both the foiled recording session and his delayed learning pace, Christian continued: ‘I’m certain we’ll get where we need to be in the end, though. Each day is another step forward, even if it’s under two feet of snow.’ |
|
Camera and lighting set up for recording the first half of Portrait of a Hero back in July 2025 at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, provided by recording engineer Josh Huang. |
|
|
As mentioned in the previous article, the recording session for our upcoming organ album, Portrait of a Hero, has been delayed due to a snowstorm. The logistics of rescheduling are still being worked out.
In the meantime, those of you based in Maryland can put down Saturday, the 2nd of May, 7 PM local time in your calendars— Christian Cang cuesta will debut the album in concert at the Cathedral of the Incarnation that evening!
We are working on a different concert slightly earlier in the year in England, on the 24th of April. We’re not ready to release details at that time, but you may wish to pencil that date in your schedules…
The following projects have been mentioned in previous editions of the Harmonicham Monthly but have minimal updates at this time: |
|
|
|
Baltimore pianist Ramilya Saubanova is recording a piano album with us. Like Christian, there has been another recording setback, but we hope to record the album over the summer and have its release by the end of the calendar year! |
|
|
Across the pond, Tristan is still composing a 6-part vocal setting of The Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward Fitzgerald. You can find out more information via Tristan’s Buy Me a Coffee page if you subscribe as a member!
The St. Chad's album mentioned in the previous month's edition of the Harmonicham Monthly has no updates at this time. |
|
|
|
|
Calendar of Upcoming Events, 2026: |
24th of April — possible concert in England; stay tuned! 2nd of May, 7 PM — Portrait of a Hero concert at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore, Maryland Early June — Portrait of a Hero tour in England Late June — Yearnings for Home tour in England August — possible recording for Ramilya’s album Sometime this year: The release of the St. Chad's album The release of Ramilya's album Premiere of Tristan's vocal setting of the Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam Premiere of two operas by Tristan Latchford
|
|
|
|
