Welcome to StringTunes and the music of Don Rath Jr Composer and Guitarist.
Don weaves together multiple flowing melodies creating a soothing and relaxing sound. His instrumental music is considered to be new classical, virtual orchestral and contemporary chamber music.
"How nice to hear music that is well thought out and not the same piece rewritten in different ways. The melodies are light and memorable and range from string quartets to fully realized orchestral works. Bravo!" Randy Akins - Ft. Wayne, IN
Don's all original music moves you, enriching and enhancing your listening experience.
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StringTunes - Music to soothe your soul!
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Don
Don Rath Jr. - Composer
On January 14th 1956, in a small suburb of Cincinnati Ohio, a healthy lad was born into this world who would later become a composer of music.
Don was raised on a Dairy farm in Illinois. As a toddler, he would sit in awe listening intently while his Mother played the organ. It was from this early impression that he began to pursue music.
During his fourth year of Grade School, Don began to play the Flute-O-Phone and later the Cornet. During his freshman year in High School he was introduced to the Guitar by one of his close friends. After a few Guitar lessons, he began to pick out some basic musical sketches that were later to become his first musical compositions. It was from these beginnings that his music has evolved to become his prime passion and interest for personal expression.
He continued to play Guitar for many years until 1993 when a left hand crush injury caused him to put performing music on hold. This event also caused him to realize the importance and value of notating his original music and he set out on a course to learn music notation and to deepen his understanding of music composition.
By 1997 he was able to complete his first demo CD titled Night Wind, which is a collection of 19 original short pieces for solo guitar. This album was never formally released as his playing skills were lessened by his earlier injury. Night Wind is currently out of print. For the next nine years he continued learning music composition and to compose music on the Classical Guitar.
The loss of his mother in late 2005 was another turning point in his life. This had a profound influence on Don where he completely changed his focus. The emotional impact over the loss of his mother resulted in the completion of over 40 new titles in 2006 alone. Also, he now arranges his music for Chamber Ensembles, String Quartet, Guitar and various solo instruments while intermixing instruments in the Woodwind family to "dress up the string sound. I'm still learning", says Don. "When inspired, one must act on it now for it is fleeting."
Late in 2006 he met Allen "Big Al" Wagner of BigToeStudio on the Internet. Using the East/West sound samples as the source for sound and arranging the mastering the CD's over the Internet with Alan, two projects; "Heart Strings" and "Dawn of a New Day" were completed in late 2006 and early 2007.
As Allen puts it, "This is a very interesting project that involved the emulation of an entire orchestra using only technology. Therefore, it features, even more, of the talent and skill of the writer and arranger, Don Rath Jr."
A fan comment on this website reads, "Awesome. Beautifully orchestrated! What you have created here is what music is all about." It is from comments like this that motivated Don to complete his debut album, Heart Strings and to release it through this website StringTunes and at CDBaby on January 3rd 2007.
His second album Dawn of a New Day was released shortly thereafter on March 21st 2007. His latest project "Colors of Cello" features the Cello and was released on March 21, 2008. Colors of Cello is a full length, twelve song, compilation of original music for cello and it was released exactly twelve months after his second album.
He is planning to redo Night Wind and he hopes to complete the production of 5 additional original instrumental music albums and the music notation books for each.
Don states, "Playing classical guitar remains one of my strongest passions and enjoyments in life with the exception of playing with my grandchildren and composing music. Writing music brings me much joy. I hope you too find pleasure in listening to my music. After all, this music is for you. A gift from the spheres. I just happened to catch it and write it down."
Pick up your personal copy of Heart Strings, Dawn of a New Day and Colors of Cello - Today"! Thank you!
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Music Theory and Composition - For those of you wishing to learn or brush up on your technical music knowledge.
Also featuring Artist Reviews and introduction articles about their music. Feel free to stop y at any time. 1/7/2011
Colors of Cello - For the record, the release date of this CD is 3/21/08.
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Do what you can to support music in our schools. Music is about creativity, passion in life and passion in love. Through educational support we can develop both creativity and passion in our children. We owe this to them! Again, I urge you to please help wherever you can!
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Stop by to listen to Podcast #64 at PodCast #64 - Don Rath Jr. To get to the main page of the Podcast click - here -
Heart Strings, Dawn of a New Day and Colors of Cello are now available through iTunes!
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StringTunes - Music to Soothe Your Soul!